Why Yorkshire still doesn't have its own emoji -and the campaign to change that

It has flown on flags, adorned coats of arms and has been a proud symbol of Yorkshire for centuries.

But now the humble white rose could be set to head somewhere entirely new: in the palm of your hand on a smartphone keyboard.

And a Leeds shopping centre is behind the bid to make it happen by submitting an entry to the organisation responsible for emojis in the hope of securing global recognition for the county’s famous emblem.

The White Rose Centre is leading the global charge to include a ‘white rose’ emoji on device keyboards across the world to mark Yorkshire Day tomorrow (August 1).

A nationwide YouGov study conducted by the shopping centre revealed that 58 per cent of respondents would use a white rose emoji if it was available.

Those surveyed would find the emoji useful in relation to a variety of topics including gardening, weddings, history, politics, and – with the highest percentage of votes at 16 per cent - the county of Yorkshire.

Once every year, the Unicode Consortium - a non-profit organisation that controls the global standard for character encoding used in operating systems across more than 20 billion devices - accepts proposals for new emoji to join the existing 3,953 characters.

White Rose Shopping Centre is now waiting for its proposal to be reviewed having submitted a detailed application for the creation of an emoji representing the great county of Yorkshire: the white rose.

The submission includes an example of what the final white rose emoji might look like, created by the centre.

Steven Foster, centre director at White Rose Shopping Centre: said: “While the red rose emoji has existed since 2010, it’s a disservice to our wonderful region that we aren’t able to share a quick, recognisable representation of the home we’re so proud of.

“That said, our research has shown that the white rose has been used to represent a number of different concepts all around the world for thousands of years.

“From its association to weddings in the West and memorial ceremonies in the East as well as links to mythology, religion, history, and art, the white rose is an enduring symbol used to communicate so many ideas not currently covered by existing emoji.

“We’re hopeful our proposal will land positively with Unicode’s panel and look forward to celebrating Yorkshire Day by sharing the white rose emoji in years to come.”

The Unicode Consortium will respond to proposals shared during this year’s submission period by December 2026 and, if successful, the white rose emoji could take up to two years to appear on keyboards around the world.