The lion emoji brings big-cat energy: courage, leadership, and that “I run this savanna” confidence. People drop it to hype a win, flex a gym PR, or signal protective parent vibes—hello, mama/papa lion mode. It also moonlights as hair commentary for those glorious mane days and as a playful way to say “I’m bold today.” Pair it with a crown or fire and you’ve basically posted a halftime pep talk.
On Apple/iOS, it’s a front-facing lion head with a golden-orange mane circling a tan muzzle, rounded ears peeking out, and soft shading that lands between cute and regal. The small black nose, button eyes, and tiny whisker dots give it a gentle, almost content expression—no teeth, no snarl, just calm authority. You’ll recognize the crisp, symmetrical face and the tidy sunflower-like ring of mane instantly. No body, no crown, just pure mane character energy.
Culturally, it taps “king of the jungle” lore, Simba/Mufasa nostalgia, and even Gryffindor bravado; it also sneaks into Leo-season posts, sometimes with the actual zodiac sign for extra astro flair. Online it can be serious (courage, loyalty), ironic (“so brave” when someone dodges a minor task), or flirty throwback (“rawr xd” for the scene-kid faithful). Sports fans use it for lion mascots and victory roars, while pun-lovers pair it with a rainbow to wink at the word pride. Expect to see it in captions like “hear me roar,” next to trophies, or before a big presentation when you need to channel main-character—sorry, mane-character—energy.
| Twitter Emoji Popularity (Rank) | 88 of 2393 |
| Apple/iOS Picture |  |
| Google Android Picture |  |
| Google Hangouts Picture | Image not available |
| Twitter.com Picture | Image not available |
| LG Emoji Picture | Image not available |
| Samsung Emoji Picture | Image not available |
| Phantom Open Emoji Picture | Not created yet |
| ASCII Conversion | |
| "Short Code" Name | |
| Keywords | |
| Previous Names: | Lion Face |
| Emoji Code Version | iOS 9 - Current |
|---|---|
| UTF-8 Unicode Character(s) | 🦁 |
| UTF-8 Character Count | 1 |
| Character(s) In Input | |
| AppleColorEmoji Font (available in OSX/iOS) | 🦁 |
| Decimal HTML Entity | 🦁 |
| Hexadecimal HTML Entity | 🦁 |
| Hex Code Point(s) | 1f981 |
| Formal Unicode Notation | U+1F981 |
| Decimal Code Point(s) | 129409 | UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax) | 0xF0 0x9F 0xA6 0x81 |
| UTF-8 Hex Bytes | F0 9F A6 81 |
| UTF-8 Octal Bytes | 360 237 246 201 |
| UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax) | 0xD83E 0xDD81 |
| UTF-16 Hex | d83edd81 |
| UTF-16 Dec | 55358 56705 |
| UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax) | 0x0001F981 |
| UTF-32 Hex | 01F981 |
| UTF-32 Dec | 129409 |
| Python Src | u"\U0001F981" |
| PHP Src | "\xf0\x9f\xa6\x81" |
| C/C++/Java Src | "\uD83E\uDD81" |
