Talk:List of non-rectangular flags

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Possible addition

Could I possibly add the old Swedish Naval Flag? (specifically the Archipelago Fleet)

Flag of archipelago fleet

8-BallFan77 (talk) 02:20, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

Yes ! It can go to the "Former flags" section. ChaseYUL99 (talk) 01:08, 6 January 2023 (UTC)

Possible Additions

Surely Switzerland and the Vatican City should be here. Officially both countries flags are square 194.230.148.56 (talk) 18:45, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

A square is a rectangle, just with the same height as its length. ChaseYUL99 (talk) 12:45, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
It's technically a rectangle, but I feel like most people aren't thinking that when they look up this article. Pxldnky77 (talk) 06:48, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

Request to add the flag of the Anuradhapura Kingdom.

It is pretty surprising to see SO many non-rectangular flags, but one flag, in which VERY surprised not added, is the de facto flag of the Anuradhapura Kingdom. Sure, "It is de facto," but still: I could put in as a note.

****Note that this topic is for permission. Okay?**** 67.81.212.178 (talk) 22:30, 30 January 2024 (UTC)

Request For More Non-Rectangular Flags

There are several non-rectangular flags that aren't on the list so I suggest that we add more of them in this article about the list of non-rectangular flags. Please reply if you find a non-rectangular flag on the internet, but make sure it's proven to have existed. The flags I request to be added on this article are the flags of Euclid and Portmouth which are both city flags in Ohio. Anonymy365248 (talk) 07:12, 27 December 2024 (UTC)

Square Swiss Flag

Alongside the flag of Vatican City, the Swiss flag is one of only two square national flags in the world - why is it not included? - sorry just saw this was already resolved - a square being a rectangle 2A02:AA12:B105:9880:1A52:F1E2:B10F:38E9 (talk) 16:02, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

I have removed these because all squares are rectangles. NanoEchidna (talk) 12:11, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

Wiphala

I added the Wiphala, as it is another square flag, similar to Switzerland, I wasn't sure where to add it due to it being listed as a national flag of Bolivia, but the "other sovereign state flags" section seemed reasonable. 2600:1700:A6A0:78F0:7C4A:6C04:2AC:F3B9 (talk) 18:34, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

I have removed this flag because, being square, it is rectangular. NanoEchidna (talk) 12:11, 12 October 2025 (UTC)
We see in this talk page many examples of people coming here looking for the square flags, so although not technically correct, don't you think it would be appropriate to include those, just with a disclaimer? Pxldnky77 (talk) 18:29, 27 October 2025 (UTC)
This isn't about being "technically correct", because it's not a mere technicality. All squares are rectangles, so to put a square flag in the list of non-rectangular flags is simply incorrect. This is not something that can be disclaimed. We shouldn't be introducing errors just because some readers are mistaken; if, as you say, they're looking for square flags, they should go to the list of square flags. NanoEchidna (talk) 13:00, 28 October 2025 (UTC)
I think we should rename this page to "List of non-quadrilateral flags". Either that or we should allow square flags to be included in the page because we're going to keep getting people suggesting we add or making edits attempting to add square flags for as long as we use this page title. Yes, all squares are rectangles, but in everyday language squares are distinct and one would expect to see square flags listed here.  Vanilla  Wizard 💙 00:46, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

Requested move 1 March 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Not moved as proposed. I suggest a new RM to be made to solve the problem, because consensus is clearly that this proposed title does not have the desired scope, and no clear alternative favorite has emerged, nor is there even a WP:NOGOODOPTIONS consensus to move (though certainly there's no consensus to keep the title). (non-admin closure) Red Slash 17:44, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

List of non-rectangular flags → List of non-quadrilateral flagsList of non-quadrilateral flags – Suggesting this as a more precise name that avoids confusion over whether or not square flags should be listed on this page, since the revision history and previous talk sections show that many editors have disagreed over whether flags like  Switzerland, Vatican City, and the Bolivia Bolivian wiphala should be included. I am personally neutral on this and would also have no objections to keeping the current title while allowing square flags to be included, I'm just looking to get a consensus to settle the issue. Perhaps if this page is renamed to List of non-quadrilateral flags, then we could have List of non-rectangular flags redirect here but also create a List of square flags and link to that with Template:For-text?  Vanilla  Wizard 💙 01:01, 1 March 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. Jeffrey34555 (talk) 17:55, 8 March 2026 (UTC)

  • Leaning against. Squares are clearly rectangles and are also quadrilaterals, so I'm not getting the idea here. Is this about trapezoids, rhomboids, kites, non-rectangular parallelograms, and irregular quadrilaterals? —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 01:45, 1 March 2026 (UTC)
    Re User:BarrelProof - to clarify, squares are currently excluded from the page as it is true that all squares are technically rectangles, but square flags are also still "non-rectangular" flags in at least one sense of the word, so the current title has resulted in many edits and several talk page requests for square flags to be included.  Switzerland and Vatican City are often grouped in with   Nepal as the three "non-rectangular flags" for that reason, while only   Nepal is non-quadrilateral. This suggested title more unambiguously excludes both squares and (non-square) rectangles. But for what it's worth, I am neutral on this and would be just as fine with changing the scope of the page to allow squares to count as "non-rectangular", as this list's utility comes from it being a collection of flags that have unusual or highly uncommon shapes. I hope this helped to explain the purpose of this request.  Vanilla  Wizard 💙 02:13, 1 March 2026 (UTC)
    As far as I can tell, it simply does not make sense to say that squares are non-rectangular. They are rectangular. I also think "quadrilateral" is too obscure a word to use for this article title. We should use words correctly, but we should also not headline an article about flags with a term that requires careful knowledge of geometry terms. List of unusually shaped flags might be worth considering. Or simply exclude squares from an article about things that aren't rectangles. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 02:20, 1 March 2026 (UTC)
    That's actually a great alternative, I support moving to List of unusually shaped flags after reading NeuroJasper's argument below. I had to take another look at the banner of Ivan the Terrible to confirm that it is in fact a quadrilateral and my proposed title would exclude it. While I disagree that "non-quadrilateral" is too uncommon term or that "non-rectangular" necessarily excludes squares (searching "non-quadrilateral flag" on DuckDuckGo yielded lots of results along the lines of "the 3 non-rectangular flags" listing Switzerland, Vatican City, and Nepal with the latter being described as the world's only "non-quadrilateral" national flag), this alternative title still works to settle the issue of if squares should be included or excluded because they are sufficiently unusual. The only downside is that the inclusion criteria becomes more subjective with a title like that, but I doubt that'll cause any serious problems.  Vanilla  Wizard 💙 06:55, 1 March 2026 (UTC)
Support alternative move - I support User:BarrelProof's suggestion, moving to List of unusually shaped flags, and including square flags in the renamed article. "Non-quadrilateral" is not a commonly-used term, making it unacceptable under WP:COMMONTERM. Furthermore, it would require excluding more flags than just the square ones. For instance, the "Banner of Ivan the Terrible in the Siege of Kazan" listed in List_of_non-rectangular_flags#Former_flags is a quadrilateral, but it is certainly unusually shaped. NeuroJasper (talk) 05:03, 1 March 2026 (UTC)
I support moving to List of unusually shaped flags and the inclusion of square flags under the new article name. It could also open the way to the inclusion of vertical rectangular flags and very narrow, but very long rectangular flags. ChaseYUL99 (talk) 03:03, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose both proposals. The idea is well-intentioned, but neither will fix the problem. What's actually needed is simply adding the necessary info to the lead of the article. Secondly, non-rectangular is the more common, and simpler term. Dege31 (talk) 13:19, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
    "Unusually shaped" seems subjective, given the lack of references. It could include some rectangular flags, as mentioned, and spawn a debate. However, I think it's fine if reliable sources on the general topic are found. Dege31 (talk) 13:30, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
    I also think that, if consensus permits, square flags could be added, regardless of the fact that squares are rectangles- because of the common name principle. One possible objection to this is that they could push out the other designs, but they can be divided into two separate sections. Alternatively, List of square flags should be created. Dege31 (talk) 13:38, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose per WP:PRECISE. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Also, there are flags in the list that are non-rectangular but that are quadrilaterals so the proposed title wouldn't even work. I would also oppose BarrelProof's suggestion as per Dege31's rationale. Unusually shaped would require reliable sources to describe them as such. Whereas the flags themselves can be primary sources for something objective like "non-rectangular".  Bait30  Talk 2 me pls? 20:47, 4 March 2026 (UTC)
    I think we could explain in the article what "unusually shaped" means for purposes of the article. We don't need a source that explicitly uses the word "unusual" to describe each particular flag. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 23:06, 4 March 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose as the current title is the clearest possible name. I concur that all squares are rectangles and the word non-quadrilateral only makes it more confusing. Alansohn (talk) 18:45, 7 March 2026 (UTC)
Note: WikiProject Heraldry and vexillology has been notified of this discussion. Jeffrey34555 (talk) 17:55, 8 March 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose both proposals: squares are rectangles and "unusual" is a subjective term. Square flags should not be added to this article. Arnav Bhate (talk • contribs) 12:46, 9 March 2026 (UTC)
  • oppose this is a pointlessly pedantic (non)problem—blindlynx 14:54, 9 March 2026 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Kingdom of León

The flag shown in the "Former flags" section of the article for the Kingdom of León (on the left below) looks rectangular to me. Am I missing something? On the other hand, there are two non-rectangular former flags for León that are shown at Heraldry of León § Medieval standard of the Kingdom of León. Looking back in the article history, the flag added by an IP editor in 2020 was non-rectangular, but someone else changed it in 2024 without providing an edit summary to explain why.

I suggest we revert back to the one from 2020, possibly also add the other non-rectangular one, and perhaps add some explanation. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 23:59, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

New RM

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Withdrawn by nom (me). Maybe try BarrelProof's suggestion? (non-admin closure) Red Slash 10:04, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

List of non-rectangular flags → List of square and non-rectangular flags –

I'm not going to push for this title, I don't have an opinion, but it seems like this is an article that wants to be about every flag that's a "weird" shape, aka either not a rectangle or is a square. Of course, we all made it past 3rd-grade math (or its equivalent) and we know that squares are rectangles, but there's an obvious solution if we want this article to be about squares as well as other non-rectangular shapes; we should just... title the article "List of square and non-rectangular flags" and cut the Gordian Knot. I've never edited this page in my recollection, and I have no dog at all in this fight, but if you want square flags included here (as has been suggested by multiple people on this talk page) then this is a way to do that. Red Slash 17:49, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

  • Oppose A square is a special type of rectangle, so this gets a bit complicated. PatGallacher (talk) 19:47, 9 March 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose: Seems too wordy and pedantic. I'll stay with my previous suggestion of List of unusually shaped flags. Square flags are also not essential to include in the article, and are not currently included. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 21:40, 9 March 2026 (UTC)
Comment I have no strong preferences one way or the other on this proposal, it sounds a little clunky but it technically works. I'm still a fan of BarrelProof's alternate title so this comment could be read as a "support List of unusually shaped flags" !vote. But I just wanted to say it probably would've been better to leave the last discussion open a bit longer, because it had only just been relisted under 24 hours before its closure and the relevant WikiProject had just been notified about the discussion but no one from that WikiProject had a chance to weigh in before it was closed. Too late to reopen it now of course.  Vanilla  Wizard 💙 22:14, 9 March 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose: Just make a separate article for list of square flags. This would be like if I went to List of iPhone models and said "let's add iPads and iPod Touches since they can also do FaceTime and iMessage, and then let's also change the name of the article to 'List of Apple smart devices'".  Bait30  Talk 2 me pls? 22:21, 9 March 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose: support Bait30's proposal of a separate page. Arnav Bhate (talk • contribs) 04:21, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Requested move 10 March 2026

List of non-rectangular flags → List of unusually-shaped flags – The current name has caused repeated confusion; this is a case where the article title causes recurrent conflict over the scope of the article, due to the way in which natural language usage conflicts with mathematical precision. Specifically, see the three points outlined below:

1. Natural language distinguishes between square flags and rectangular flags, with square flags not being considered rectangular. This can be easily found across myriad news articles and other popular press publications. For example, Diario AS stated the following in an article they ran during the last Summer Olympics:

The Swiss flag is not rectangular, but square.

The Wikipedia article on Flag of Switzerland also refers to the non-square variant of Switzerland's flag as "[t]he rectangular variant", implying that the standard square is not rectangular. This is a stark illustration of just how pervasive it is to contrast square flags with rectangular flags, in natural language.
2. Excluding square flags from this article has been a repeated source of confusion for Wikipedia users. On this Talk Page, new topics have been created in 2023 and in 2025 to suggest the inclusion of square flags. If consensus permitted, square flags could be added to cohere with the natural language usage in which "square" contrasts against (non-square) "rectangular". However,
3. Consensus does not exist to describe square flags as non-rectangular. In a previous RM, users suggested both that square flags should be included in this article on the basis of natural language, and that square flags should be excluded from this article on the basis of mathematical precision. This issue appears to be unresolvable with the current title.

Of course, anyone who has a basic understanding of geometry knows that mathematically, squares are a subset of rectangles. But RM arguments should be based on Wikipedia policy, and here we have a case where the WP:CRITERIA for article titles are in tension with one another. The current title has precision but not naturalness if square flags are excluded, and it has naturalness but not precision if square flags are included. This dilemma is unresolvable under the current title. The suggested rename, List of unusually-shaped flags, is totally natural with a small decrease in precision due to the inherent subjectivity in defining "unusualness". However, it will resolve the inescapable tension of the current title, which is untenable for the reasons outlined above. It is also more natural than alternatives such as "List of square and non-rectangular flags" and "List of non-quadrilateral flags". For these reasons, "List of unusually-shaped flags" is the most preferable option under WP:TITLE. NeuroJasper (talk) 17:22, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

  • Support for the same reasons why I supported this when it was suggested before, and the nom did an excellent job at describing why the current title can never have a satisfactory scope. This would be far from the only article to have a title beginning with "List of unusual[...]" and the lead of the article could explain that the page's scope is flags that are not wide rectangles (or if we need to be extra technical with the definition, "flags whose shape is anything other than rectangles whose width is greater than their length"), possibly mentioning the fact that only three current national flags meet that criteria (as that is a self-evidently true statement that likely does not require a source, but sources do exist for that statement if needed). Sourcing claims that any individual flag is sufficiently "unusual" would be harder, but doable for some of the more well-known ones, see The mysterious, mathematical origins of the world’s most unusually shaped national flag - CNN  Vanilla  Wizard 💙 23:00, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
Oppose: You mention that the discussion has been brought up twice in 2 years. The first time, it was explained to them that squares aren't rectangles and that was the end of that thread. The second time, the IP account immediately answered their own question when they realized that squares are rectangles. Since 2023, this page has gotten 78113 views.
In fact, all country flags are rectangles except the flag of Nepal: from an article I found on JSTOR.
This article in The World contains quotes from the chief vexillologist of The Flag Institute who frequently refers to the flag of Nepal as the only non-rectangular flag.
This quote from Atlas Obscura: As all squares are rectangles, the square flags of Switzerland and Vatican City are not as unusual as they might think.
Complete Flags of the World published by DK: The flag of Switzerland is one of the most typical European flags.
In the Flag Bulletin of the Flag Research Center: Are there sound reasons for Nepal to have the only non-rectangular flag amongst the nations of the world?
This random trivia book that was published in 2026: The flags of Switzerland and Vatican City are perfect squares, but a square is a type of rectangle, so that hardly counts!.
From this I don't think you can say there is a common name. And in terms of balancing precision and naturalness, I would rather keep a title that is precise and maybe less natural to some people versus a title that is not precise and that maybe less natural to other people.  Bait30  Talk 2 me pls? 03:54, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
Oppose Square flags are not unusual. They’re far more common than, say, a flag with a 13:15 aspect ratio (that article literally says “unusual proportions”; Flag of Switzerland does not). There are two square flags at every football match. Most of the flags used for maritime signalling are square. In Switzerland, every canton and possibly every municipality has a square flag—Commons has a category with 570 files and I don’t think it’s complete. Numerous municipal flags in Spain and Ukraine are also square. ~2026-15461-82 (talk) 04:42, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose: "Unusual" is a subjective term - all entries then would need to be sourced to RSes calling them unusually shaped. I would say rectangular flags having uncommon proportions are unusual too. I also disagree that the title is not WP:NATURAL. Non-rectangular naturally excludes square, and the fact that it was only brought up twice shows this. Arnav Bhate (talk • contribs) 05:46, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
  • Oppose this list is mostly about swallowtail flags which aren't unusual as flags go. Also adding square flags to this isn't that big a deal—blindlynx 15:23, 11 March 2026 (UTC)

Related Articles

Wikiwand AI