Fancy text symbols with a history
Many fancy symbols are older than computers. is the hedera or ivy leaf, a mark carved between words in Roman inscriptions and later used by printers as a fleuron to fill space and close a passage; and are its rotated versions. ⁂, the asterism, marks a break between sections, and ¶, the pilcrow, marked new paragraphs in medieval manuscripts before indentation took over.
‽, the interrobang, was invented in 1962 by the American advertising executive Martin K. Speckter to combine a question and an exclamation in one mark. ⸮, the reversed question mark, goes back to the 1580s, when the English printer Henry Denham proposed it for rhetorical questions. ※ is the Japanese reference mark (kome-jirushi), used like an asterisk for notes.
Weird symbols that look like decorations
Some of the most stylish characters are letters or signs from real writing systems. ꧁ ꧂ come from the Javanese script, where they frame titles. ღ is the Georgian letter ghan, used by everyone else as a hand-drawn heart. are the Armenian eternity sign, marks sections of the Quran, is the Sikh khanda (named Adi Shakti in Unicode), and 彡 乂 〆 are Chinese and Japanese characters. They are fine to use as decoration, but it is worth knowing that for some readers they still carry their original meaning.
Others come from astrology and science: are signs for Mercury, Neptune and the Black Moon Lilith, is a benzene ring, is the Mac Command key (a Scandinavian sign for a place of interest), and are the caduceus and the staff of Hermes.
Fancy symbols for names, usernames and Discord
For a display name, frame it rather than fill it: ꧁Luna꧂, ✧ Luna ✧, ❀ Luna ❀, 【Luna】. Hearts like ღ and florettes soften a name; crosses and daggers † ‡ ⸸ make it darker. Discord display names, Steam and most social bios accept all of these. Usernames and handles usually do not: Instagram, TikTok and X handles allow only letters, numbers, dots or underscores, so keep fancy symbols for the display name and the bio.
The brackets 『 』 〖 〗 ❰ ❱ ﴾ ﴿ and the box arcs make good frames for bio lines and server channel names, and the shade blocks make simple text banners.
Fancy symbols vs fancy fonts
A fancy text generator that turns hello into 𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓸 is not changing the font. It swaps each letter for a look-alike from Unicode's mathematical alphabets, and those are separate characters. That is why they paste anywhere, but also why search engines and screen readers may not read them as words. Symbols on this page are different: they are decorations you add around normal text, so your name stays readable.
Most of the ornaments here come from the Dingbats block, which Unicode took over in the early 1990s from the ITC Zapf Dingbats typeface that Hermann Zapf designed in 1978. The swash ampersands are newer, from the Ornamental Dingbats block added in Unicode 7.0 in 2014, so very old phones may show them as boxes.
Symbols
169Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Name frames and brackets
pairs, left then right
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyFancy Symbols combos
14Worth knowing
- appears in Roman inscriptions as a word divider, so it is one of the oldest decorative marks you can still copy and paste.
- The interrobang ‽ was briefly put on some Remington typewriters in the late 1960s, then faded out until Unicode brought it back.
- was chosen for the Apple Command key in 1984 after Steve Jobs objected to putting the Apple logo on the key; the sign was taken from Scandinavian signs for places of interest.
- The fleuron is also called an aldus leaf, after the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, whose books popularised it around 1500.
Questions people ask
6How do I copy and paste fancy symbols?
Tap a symbol on this page to copy it, then paste it wherever you type. On a phone, long-press the text field and choose Paste. Nothing needs to be installed, because every symbol here is a standard Unicode character.
What is the fancy symbol for and?
Swash ampersands like , and are the fancy versions of &. is an upside-down ampersand, and ⁊ is the Tironian et, an old scribe's shorthand for and that is still used on Irish road signs.
What are weird symbols called?
Most have proper Unicode names: is a floral heart, ⁂ an asterism, ※ a reference mark, ‽ an interrobang and ꧁ ꧂ Javanese rerenggan. Tap any symbol here to open its own page with the name and history.
Why do some fancy symbols show as boxes?
The device or app has no font that draws that character. Older ornaments like are supported almost everywhere; newer ones such as or may fail on old phones or inside games.
Can I use fancy symbols in my username?
In display names, bios and Discord, yes. In login usernames and @handles, usually no, because most sites only allow letters, numbers, dots and underscores.
Are fancy symbols the same as a fancy text generator?
No. A generator replaces letters with look-alike mathematical characters, while these symbols are decorations you add around normal text, so your words stay searchable and readable.
