The Best Birthday Emojis 🎉🥳🎁

Growing older each birthday can stir up mixed emotions—reflections on loss, change, and the passage of time—but it’s also the perfect excuse to celebrate!

Each year, those who choose to mark another year around the sun do so in all sorts of ways, from parties to dinners to leisurely days off from work. And, of course, there’s usually a lot of birthday love to soak up from friends and loved ones.

Where mailing a birthday card was once common practice, the Internet era has made it easier to send instantaneous messages to those we care about on their special days. That means emojis often unsurprisingly play a central role in birthday wishes and shoutouts—from the longest, most heartfelt notes to the quickest “Happy Birthday! 🎉🥳🎁” texts. 

So whether you’re a self-proclaimed birthday diva or you shy away from the spotlight on your solar return, check out these emojis you’ll often find associated with birthdays. 

🎁 Classic Birthday Emojis

There’s no wrong or right way to celebrate a birthday, but there are certainly traditional ones.

Those from the Western world will likely recognize some of the most popular birthday emojis, including the 🎂 Birthday Cake, a digital stand-in for the classic confectionary birthday delicacy—with its counterparts the sliced 🍰 Shortcake or the cuter 🧁Cupcake also serving as decadent, indulgent choices. 

Though not birthday-specific or even necessarily associated with desserts, the 🕯️ Candle is a recognizable birthday symbol that is often tied to the various cake emojis. When paired with the 🔥 Fire, it can signify a cake-topping candle that’s lit, ready for its post-wish extinguishing at the end of the iconic “Happy Birthday” song—which can also be captured by the 🎶 Musical Notes.

The 🎁 Wrapped Gift, the 💝 Heart with Ribbon, and the ✨ Sparkles are also natural go-tos for many birthday well-wishers, as are the 🎈Balloon, the 🥳 Partying Face, the 🎉 Party Popper, and the 🍾 Bottle with Popping Cork and 🥂 Clinking Glasses for the more festively inclined. 

Of course, any of the emojis used to express affection—like the ❤️ Red Heart, the 😍 Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes, and the 😘 Face Blowing a Kiss, for example—can convey birthday warmth and love when embedded in a digital message on someone’s special day.

🪅 Cross-Cultural Birthday Emojis

In the world outside the West, and especially the United States, birthday celebrations and traditions can look a bit different, though the spirit of merriment lives on just as strongly.

In the Latin American world, the 🪅 Piñata—a customary hanging container of Mexican origin that’s filled with candy, toys, or other treats and broken open during celebrations—is a classic symbol of festivity, often adopted for fiestas like children’s birthday parties throughout the Americas. 

In China, the 🧧 Red Envelope emoji asserts itself as a birthday staple since the gifting of money in red envelopes on special occasions—like birthdays, weddings, graduations, and the Lunar New Year—is a common cultural practice.

Whereas champagne might be the alcoholic beverage most typically associated with birthdays in places like the U.S., the 🍷 Wine Glass is likely to see more usage in European countries like Italy, Spain, and France, where wine is much more traditional in birthday toasts. 

Spain and Italy have their own variations of a kooky tradition, which is also seen in countries like Brazil and Hungary, where children celebrating their birthdays have their earlobes pulled, with one tug for each year of age. Anyone who receives a message with the 👂Ear emoji might be able to anticipate a little bit of playful albeit painful birthday teasing coming their way.

🍦 Other Birthday Emojis

Of course, almost any emoji can become a birthday emoji if it has special significance to the person being celebrated. Since people like to spend their birthdays in all sorts of ways, there’s no limit to how emojis can be used to make birthday messages feel more personal and tailored.

If someone’s partial to a particular cuisine or sweet treat and is going to chow down on their favorites, the food emojis—like the 🍕 Pizza, the 🍣 Sushi,  the 🍔 Hamburger, the 🍦 Soft Ice Cream, and the 🍪 Cookie, to name just a few—can add some flavor to the menu of someone’s birthday experience.

Other emojis can be used to represent activities and pastimes that people often engage in on their birthdays, like the 🎮 Video Game, the 🧗 Person Climbing, the 📚 Books, and the ⚽Soccer Ball, among countless others.

For those who like to hit the dance floor, the 💃 Woman Dancing and the 🕺 Man Dancing help set a groovy birthday mood, as does the 🪩 Mirror Ball. 

Tying birthdays to astrology can also make for a thoughtful gesture in a message for someone who finds meaning in mapping the stars and their birth chart—like a ♓ Pisces emoji for someone born from February 19 to March 20, for example. 

Overall, birthdays are meant to be fun and festive, and emojis can awaken a little bit of that joy, no matter if we’re 1️⃣ or approaching 💯.