Flag: St. Barthélemy

A small French island in the Caribbean, famous as a luxury getaway. Saint-Barthélemy sits in the northeastern Caribbean, a short hop from Saint Martin. It is about 25 square kilometres with roughly ten thousand residents, speaks French, pays in euros and has been its own French overseas collectivity since 2007, after long being administered as part of Guadeloupe. To most of the world it is simply St Barts (or St Barth, the French short form): white beaches, yachts in Gustavia harbour, and celebrity New Year's Eve parties.

The island has no official flag of its own; it flies the French tricolour. That is why nearly every phone draws 🇧🇱 as the same blue, white and red bands as 🇫🇷. There is an unofficial local flag, white with the island's coat of arms (three fleurs-de-lis, a Maltese cross, three crowns and a pelican), but you will rarely see it on an emoji keyboard. The emoji exists because BL is the island's two-letter country code: 🇧🇱 is really the letters B and L, which flag-capable software swaps for a flag picture.

What does it mean when someone sends 🇧🇱?

Almost always: "St Barts", as a place, a trip or a home. In a bio it marks where someone is from or lives; under a photo it says where the photo was taken; in a chat it is shorthand for a holiday, a yacht charter or a wedding on the island. Because St Barts is so associated with wealth, the flag often carries a wink of glamour or envy: "off to 🇧🇱" reads a little like "off somewhere fabulous".

The flag is sometimes used to settle the island's identity: islanders and French readers may pair it with 🇫🇷 to say "French, not independent", while anyone referring to the neighbouring half-French, half-Dutch island of Saint Martin would use 🇲🇫 or 🇸🇽 instead.