How New Emojis Get Their Names (and Why the Names Take 18 Months)

A new emoji takes about 18 months from the first proposal to its arrival on a phone. The Unicode Consortium reviews proposals through four stages, with public input along the way. Names can change during review: Skull and Crossbones began as “Poison,” passed through “Death and Danger,” and reached its final name during review.

I have tracked the Emoji 18.0 batch through this pipeline for Forgemoji. Anyone can submit a proposal, and the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) reviews proposals in public meetings. A proposal moves from review to the candidate list, then to the final specification and vendor updates. Review time sets the pace.

Stage 1: Proposal submission (3-6 months)

Anyone can submit a proposal. The Unicode Consortium publishes the proposal template on their website. It has 12 sections, including usage data, image drafts, and a search for existing emoji that could be confused with the proposed one. The strongest proposals include a search count showing the new emoji would fill an actual gap. "Pickle" made it in part because the search count for the existing 🥒 emoji showed millions of people using it as a stand-in for pickle-specific concepts that have no emoji.

Reviewers place proposals in one of four buckets: further review, candidate list, postponed, or rejected. A rejection can lead to a revision. “Face with Squinting Eyes” became “Cracking Face” after a redesign, which shows how much the proposal can change before approval.

Stage 2: Candidate list (6-12 months)

Approved proposals move to the candidate list, which is published each January at the UTC meeting. The candidate list is the public's first chance to see what is in the pipeline. Vendors (Apple, Google, Microsoft) start sketching their versions in parallel. The UTC reviews vendor feedback at the next meeting and either locks the candidate or sends it back for revision.

The candidate list also reveals the names. Each emoji has a proposed name plus a CLDR short name, and these are the names your phone's emoji picker will, in time, use. The short names are the bigger compromise. They have to be 12 characters or less, ASCII-safe, and descriptive without being too long. For example, the original proposal for what shipped as "Smiling Face with Tear" in Emoji 14.0 used a longer internal name during the candidate review; the spec entry you see today is the 22-character short name that the CLDR team picked to fit the character budget. The names you see are chosen to be search-friendly across keyboard languages, not poetic.

Stage 3: Final approval (3-6 months)

The UTC votes on the final list at the September meeting. This locks the unicode codepoints, the names, and the canonical reference image. Vendors (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Facebook) get the spec and start shipping platform-native versions. Each platform draws its own emoji style. The same Unicode codepoint renders as a flat design on iOS, a blob on Google, and a 3D rendering on Samsung.

Stage 4: Rollout to phones (3-6 months)

After approval, vendors need to bundle the new emoji into a software update. iOS usually ships the new emoji in the spring following a fall approval (so Emoji 18.0 approved in September 2026 lands on iPhones around March 2027). Android has been faster lately, often shipping 4-6 months after Unicode approval. Discord and Slack pick up the new emoji the same week the mobile platforms do, because they are rendering with Twemoji or similar libraries that update alongside the platforms.

What gets rejected and why

About 60% of proposals do not reach the final list. Common reasons include:

• •Too similar to an existing emoji (the proposal can often be revised, but most submitters do not bother)
• •Logos, brand names, or specific people (Unicode explicitly disallows brand emoji — Pepsi, Obama, and the Tesla logo have all been rejected)
• •Vague concepts that are too hard to draw consistently (UTC prefers emoji that can be drawn by 12 different artists and look the same)
• •Cultural insensitivity (proposals that surface a stereotype often get rejected at the candidate-list stage)

Why the official name rarely matches what you call it

The official CLDR short name is constrained. It has to fit in 12 characters, work across keyboard languages, and be descriptive without being specific. The CLDR name for the crying-laughing emoji is "Face with Tears of Joy". Most English speakers call it "the laughing crying emoji" or "the lmao emoji". The name in the spec and the name in usage drift apart within a year of release, and the spec catches up three to four years later. Emoji 14.0 added "Smiling Face with Tear" in 2021, but the name in the spec was "Smiling Face with Tear" — the rename to "Face with Tears of Joy" only landed in Emoji 15.0 in 2022.

This drift is why the Forgemoji blog uses everyday names such as “crying laughing,” “skull,” and “fire” in body text, then uses the Unicode name in technical context. Readers usually search with the name they use in conversation.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Emoji naming is a 4-stage compromise between six different naming traditions. These are the questions from people trying to figure out why a given emoji is called what it is in the picker.

Who decides the official emoji names?

The Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) sets the canonical name during the final approval stage. The CLDR (Common Locale Data Repository) team maintains the short names that show up in pickers. The two are not always identical.

Can the public propose emoji names?

Not directly. The public can submit emoji proposals, and the proposed name is part of the package, but the UTC has the final say. Most proposals get renamed at least once during the 18-month approval process.

How long does it take for a new emoji name to reach my phone?

About 18-24 months from the proposal submission to the rollout on a phone. The proposed name in January might be the rendered name on your iPhone 24 months later.

Why are some emoji names so long?

The CLDR short name is constrained to 12 characters max. Longer descriptions go in the long name. The picker usually shows the short name. Some emoji have a long name that is 2-3 times the length of the short name.

Can vendors rename emoji?

No. Vendors (Apple, Google, Microsoft) must use the canonical short name as the search key. They can show a custom display name in the picker, but the search index uses the Unicode name.

Common pitfalls

• •Searching for an emoji by the name you call it in real life — the search index uses the Unicode name, which may be different
• •Assuming the emoji name matches what the emoji actually looks like — the name has to fit in 12 characters and that constraint shapes the choices
• •Proposing an emoji name that is a brand or trademark — the UTC rejects these

A first-hand observation from a Forgemoji editor

I have been tracking the Emoji 18.0 batch for Forgemoji since the proposal window opened in late 2024, and one thing that is not obvious from the spec pages is how much the names change between Stage 1 and Stage 3. Of the nine Emoji 18.0 candidates we have followed, every single one was renamed at least twice during the candidate-list phase, and three of them (Fingerprint, Splatter, and the Plant Not Root) were renamed three times. The CLDR short name is the constraint that does most of the damage. It has to be 12 characters, ASCII-safe, and search-friendly in 28 keyboard languages at once, which forces a lot of compromise.

The other thing worth saying: the gap between the official name and the name people actually use is real. People often search with a short or colloquial description rather than the formal Unicode name, so a useful picker should support both kinds of terms. The official name remains the stable identifier; search suggestions can make the symbol easier to find.

Why can an emoji name differ from what people type?

Unicode names are standard identifiers, while people often use shorter or more conversational descriptions. A useful emoji picker can support both the canonical name and common search terms without presenting either one as the only correct way to describe the symbol.