The nesting doll emoji is πͺ, Nesting dolls, U+1FA86, from Emoji 13.0. Unicodeβs name is plural: one tile stands for the whole set.
Read the full guide
Russian doll emoji, matryoshka, babushka: one tile
CLDR, Unicodeβs list of search words, files πͺ under doll, nesting, russia, matryoshka and three spellings of babushka. The Russian name is matryoshka, by Wiktionary a diminutive of the first name Matryona. By Wikipedia babushka means grandmother or old woman, and in Russian the dolls are not called that.
What is inside
By Wikipedia a matryoshka is a set of wooden dolls, each smaller one placed inside the next, and the innermost is usually a baby turned from one piece of wood. The first Russian set was made in the 1890s. Set of five copies five dolls, by the same article the standard set of the Soviet period.
An emoji cannot shrink, but letters come in sizes. οΌ― O o β . runs from a fullwidth O down to a full stop.
Questions and answers
What is the πͺ emoji called?
Nesting dolls. Unicode prints it between Mirror ball and Spade suit, in the subgroup it calls game. Japanese dolls is the only other emoji CLDR files under doll.
Is a nesting doll the same as a Russian doll?
Yes. Wiktionary defines a Russian doll as one doll of a hollow nesting set, usually decorated and wooden, and gives nesting doll as a synonym. It adds a second sense: a situation that keeps revealing more levels of complexity.
How do you spell matryoshka in Russian?
ΠΌΠ°ΡΡΡΡΠΊΠ°, with the letter Ρ. In English, Wiktionary gives the plural as matryoshkas or matryoshki and lists matreshka and matrioshka as other spellings.
All 47 items
Nesting dolls 17
πΆBabyU+1F476. Filed under baby and infant. The inmost doll is usually a baby, by Wikipedia. Emoji 0.6.
πͺΉEmpty nestU+1FAB9. Filed under nesting. So are the dolls. Emoji 14.0.
πJapanese dollsU+1F38E. The other emoji CLDR files under doll and dolls. Emoji 0.6.
βDoll in a doll, from aboveU+25CE. Unicode names it Bullseye: one ring inside another.
οΌ― O o β .A set of five, largest first: fullwidth O, capital O, small o, subscript o, full stop
β o O οΌ―Putting the set back together, smallest first
Doll drawings 2
Doll inside a dollSix lines of ASCII
Three dolls in a rowFive lines of ASCII, tallest first
Doll lines 6
A meeting about a meeting πͺFor the calendar
It is dolls all the way down πͺFor anything nested
One more layer πͺFor a problem that keeps going
Open me. Then open that one πͺInstructions
Small on the inside too πͺA modest caption
There is always a smaller one πͺThe rule of the set
Doll combos 12
π΅πͺBabushka dollOld woman, then nesting dolls.
π¦π¦πͺBox in a boxPackage, twice, then nesting dolls.
πͺππ§ΈDoll shelfNesting dolls, then Japanese dolls, then teddy bear.
πππͺFolder in a folderFile folder, then open file folder, then nesting dolls.
ππͺGift inside a giftWrapped gift, then nesting dolls.
ππͺMystery in layersMagnifying glass tilted left, then nesting dolls.
ππͺπNested thoughtsThought balloon, then nesting dolls, then thought balloon.
ποΈπͺPainted by handPaintbrush, then nesting dolls.
π§ πͺPeeling back layersOnion, then nesting dolls.
πͺπͺπͺπͺπͺSet of fiveNesting dolls, five times.
πͺπΆThe smallest oneNesting dolls, then baby.
πͺ΅πͺTurned from woodWood, then nesting dolls.
How this list was compiled: Built on 2026-10-08 from sources read that day. The emoji, their names, code points and Emoji version numbers are from the Unicode emoji list, version 18.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/emoji/emoji-test.txt); names are the CLDR short names printed in that file. Search words are from the CLDR English annotations (https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotations/en.xml and https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotationsDerived/en.xml). Nesting dolls is U+1FA86, Emoji 13.0, in the subgroup game of Activities: Mirror ball is printed before it and Spade suit after it. CLDR gives it eight search words (babooshka, baboushka, babushka, doll, dolls, matryoshka, nesting, russia); it is the only emoji filed under matryoshka, babushka or russia, one of two under doll (with Japanese dolls) and one of three under nesting (with the two nests). Character names are from UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt); the emoji has no text style row in https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-variation-sequences.txt. The doll (a set of wooden dolls, each smaller one placed inside the next; the name a diminutive of Matryona; the first Russian set made in the 1890s; the innermost typically a baby turned from one piece of wood; not called babushka in Russian, where the word means grandmother or old woman; five dolls in the standard set of the Soviet period; usually linden wood) is from Wikipedia, Matryoshka doll (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matryoshka_doll, CC BY-SA 4.0). The words are as Wiktionary gives them: matryoshka (plurals matryoshkas and matryoshki; other spellings matreshka and matrioshka), ΠΌΠ°ΡΡΡΡΠΊΠ°, Russian doll (the toy, and a situation that keeps revealing more levels of complexity), nesting doll (a synonym of Russian doll) and babushka (the doll since the 1940s; also a headscarf) (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matryoshka, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ΠΌΠ°ΡΡΡΡΠΊΠ°, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Russian_doll, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nesting_doll, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/babushka, CC BY-SA 4.0). The six typed dolls, the two drawings, the six lines and the twelve combos are this siteβs own work. Licence: own work: the selection, the combo names, the text drawings and the notes are this site's own. Emoji names, code points and search words are Unicode and CLDR data, used under the Unicode License v3 (https://www.unicode.org/license.txt). Facts from Wikipedia and Wiktionary are restated in this site's own words and credited in the source line.