Flag identification key

With this flag identification key only the national flags of the sovereign states were taken into account.

The identification key divides the flags into several groups depending on their appearance, for example into single-colored flags, flags with symbols, flags with vertical and horizontal stripes, etc.

When supplements are mentioned, coats of arms or crosses, stars, plants, animals, etc. are meant.



monochrome basic cloth	2 horizontal (without emblem)	2 vertical (without emblem)	3 vertical (without emblem)	3 horizontal (without emblem)	4 + horizontal (without emblem)	diagonally divided (without emblem)
monochrome (with emblem)	2 horizontal (with emblem)	2 vertical (with emblem)	3 vertical (with emblem)	3 horizontal (with emblem)	4 + horizontal (with emblem)	diagonally divided (with emblem)



frame	Triangle (without emblem)	Gösch	cross	Moon and star	Sun, moon and stars
frame	Triangle (with emblem)	Gösch (with emblem)	Union Jack	Moon and star	Square (with emblem)	difficult to classify

Solid color background

The basic cloth of the flag, ignoring all additions in the form of coats of arms, stars or small flags in the upper corner, consists of a single-colored cloth, forms a single-colored surface.



green flag cloth	Libya (until 2011)	Saudi Arabia	Bangladesh	Brazil
blue flag cloth	Palau	Kazakhstan	St. Lucia	Somalia	Micronesia	Kosovo
red flag cloth	Morocco	Vietnam	People's Republic of China	Kyrgyzstan	Albania	Turkey
white flag cloth	Japan	South Korea	Cyprus

Two vertical stripes

The flag has two stripes running from top to bottom, also of irregular or narrow width, wavy lines or narrow white dividing lines also count as stripes.



equally wide	Algeria	Malta	Vatican
different wide	Portugal	Pakistan	Bahrain	Qatar

Two horizontal stripes

The flag has two stripes running from left to right, some of which are irregular in width.

In addition, it can have a vertical bar, a triangle or a different colored upper corner on the flagstick.



without additions	Indonesia	Monaco	Poland	Ukraine
red above	Singapore	Burkina Faso	Angola
below red	Chile	Haiti	Liechtenstein stone
with bars	Madagascar	Benin	Guinea- Bissau
with triangle	Philippines	Czech Republic	Djibouti
Others	San Marino

Three horizontal stripes

The flag has three stripes running from left to right, some of which are irregular or narrow, and wavy lines or narrow white dividing lines also count as stripes. In addition, it can have a vertical bar, a triangle or a different colored upper corner on the flagstick.



Middle white	Dutch	Luxembourg	Hungary	Sierra L.	Austria	Yemen	Latvia
without additions	Germany	Colombia	Lithuania	Russia	Bulgaria	Armenia	Bolivia	Estonia	Gabon
red-white- black	Syria	Iraq	Egypt	Yemen
red-white- black-green	Emirates	Kuwait	Jordan	Sudan
blue-white- blue	Honduras	Nicaragua	El Salvador	Argentina
with coat of arms	Serbia	Slovenia	Slovakia	Croatia	Spain	Belize	Ecuador
with triangle	Bahamas	Jordan	South Africa	Equatorial	Sudan	South Sudan
with stars	Honduras	Venezuela	Ghana	Azerbai.	Jordan	Syria	Myanmar	Nauru	Tajikistan
with sun	Malawi	Rwanda
Middle white	Lebanon	Iran	India	Niger	Paraguay	Lesotho	Tajikistan
Others	Cambodia	Laos	Ethiopia	Libya	Oman

Four or more stripes

The flag has four or more stripes running from left to right, some of which are irregular or narrow. Wavy lines or narrow white dividing lines also count as stripes.

In addition, the flag can have a vertical bar, a triangle or a different colored upper corner on the flagstick.



without supplement	Mauritius	Thailand	Costa Rica	Gambia	Botswana
a star	Israel	Cuba	Zimbabwe	Togo	Central Afr.	Suriname	North Korea
several stars	Uzbekistan	Cape Verde	Comoros	United States
USA design	United States	Liberia	Malaysia
other addition	Greek	Uruguay	Uganda	Kenya	Swaziland

Three vertical stripes

The flag has three stripes running from top to bottom, some of which are irregular or narrow, and wavy lines or narrow white dividing lines also count as stripes. These flags are considered to be the original tricolors



Middle white	France	Italy	Nigeria	Ireland	Ivory	Peru
Middle yellow	Chad	Romania	Mali	Guinea	Belgium
Middle white	Canada	Guatemala	Mexico
Middle yellow	Andorra	Moldova	Barbados	Senegal	St. Vincent
Others	Mongolia	Afghanistan	Cameroon

Gösch

The rectangle or square in the corner is called Gösch in flag science . It is the corner on the side facing the mast, the mast or luff .

This type of jack is often a " flag in the flag ".



red base color	Taiwan	Samoa	Tonga
USA design	United States	Liberia	Malaysia
Union Jack	Australia	New Zealand.	Fiji	Tuvalu
Others	Greek	Zambia	Togo

cross

Scandinavian cross: The flag is dominated by a large, straight Scandinavian cross , the ends of which extend to the edges, but whose vertical bar is closer to the leech .
Straight cross: The flag is dominated by a large, straight St. George's cross , the ends of which extend to the edges. The vertical bar is exactly in the middle.
Inclined cross: The flag is dominated by a large, diagonal St. Andrew's cross , the ends of which extend to the corners.
Floating cross: The floating cross is a cross whose ends do not extend to the edges of the flag.
Union Jack: The flag is wholly or partially ruled by the British Union Jack .



Northern Cross	Denmark	Sweden	Finland	Norway	Iceland
George Cross	Georgia	Dom. Rep.	Dominica	Greek
St. Andrew's Cross	Burundi	Jamaica
Floating cross	Switzerland	Tonga
Union Jack	United Kingdom	Australia	Fiji	New Zealand	Tuvalu

Wedge / triangle

The flag has (mostly) a triangle on the side facing the mast, the luff .



Red triangle	Eritrea	Cuba	Jordan	Mozambique	Sao Tome	Guyana
Blue triangle	Czech Republic	Eq. Guinea	South Sudan
White triangle	Philippines	Zimbabwe
Black triangle	Bahamas	Kuwait	Vanuatu	South Africa	East Timor
Others	Sudan	Antigua & B.	Bosnia

Sun, moon and stars

The flag has a sun, a half moon or a full moon, one or more stars or a moon and star in combination as a supplement or as a central emblem.

Divided diagonally

The flag has at least two or more diagonal stripes, some of which are of irregular width. Wavy lines or narrow white dividing lines also count as stripes.

Divided diagonally means that the flag consists of two halves, which are separated from each other by the diagonal.



top left	Papua New Guinea	Trinidad & Tobago	Brunei
bottom left	Tanzania	St. Kitts & Nevis	Congo	Marshall Islands	DR Congo	Namibia	Solomon Islands	Bhutan

Outlined

The flag has a more or less noticeable border all around or only on three sides.



rectangular	Maldives	Grenada	Sri Lanka	Montenegro
triangular	Nepal

Quartered

The flag consists of four quarters, which are divided by the bisector or the diagonals.



across	Panama	Dom. Rep.	Dominica
aslant	Burundi	Jamaica

Difficult to classify

Some national flags are difficult to classify in the current schemes. But this often also means that they are unmistakable and have a high degree of recognition.



Divided	white russia	Turk menistan	Kiribati	North Macedonia	Seychelles

Northern Macedonia and the Seychelles show Ständerung .

Pan-Slavic colors

The Pan-Slavic colors white-blue-red are the colors that are used in the flags of most of the Slavic states to express a togetherness of the Slavic peoples.



Basic form	Russia
Modifications	Serbia	Slovakia	Slovenia	Croatia	Czech Republic
easy variant	Bulgaria

Pan-African colors

The pan-African colors express the feeling of togetherness of the African nations. The model was based on the colors of Ethiopia, the first independent country in Africa.



horizontal	Ethiopia	Burkina F.	Ghana
vertical	Mali	Senegal	Guinea	Cameroon
with triangle	Mozambique	Sao Tome	Zimbabwe
with bars	Guinea-B.	Benin	Central Africa
Others	Congo	Togo

Pan-Arabic colors

The Pan-Arab colors are black, red, white, and green, which are common features in some Arab flags. The colors originally go back to the Arab revolutionary flag from 1916.



Tricolor	Syria	Iraq	Egypt	Yemen
with supplement	Emirates	Sudan	Kuwait	Jordan	Libya

Central American colors

The Central American colors blue-white-blue are used in the flags of the Central American republics and are based on the flag of Argentina .



	Argentina	Nicaragua	El Salvador	Honduras	Guatemala
variants	Panama	Costa Rica

Greater Colombian colors

The Greater Colombian colors gold-blue-red are used in the flags of the successor states of Greater Colombia in northern South America, founded by Simón Bolívar in 1819 .



Colombia	Venezuela	Ecuador

Easy to mix up

Many flags are easy to confuse.

literature

Karl-Heinz Hesmer: Flags and coats of arms of the world. History and symbolism of the flags and coats of arms of all states. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh 1992, ISBN 3-570-01082-1 .

Web links

Flag Finder (German)
flag detective (English)
Flag Finder (English)
flag identifier (English)