Some of my favorite flags
September 10, 2025I like flags. Here are some flags I like:
Old Glory. The greatest. The best. Better than the rest. Foreigners sometimes mock Americans for how proud we are of our flag, but that's just because they don't know what having a great flag feels like.
Perhaps I'm partial to my native state, but I think Alabama truly does have one of if not the best state flag. Simple and classy, the Alabama flag seemlessly and subtly integrates English, Scottish, and Confederate heritage into one iconic banner.
While the current flag is great, I'm also a big fan of Alabama's Civil War-era flag as well. Notable for being one of very few flags to utilize differing designs for the obverse and reverse.
Alabama's northern neighbor Tennessee has a very different but still very good flag. It also looks like a Dragon Ball.
Despite various objections to California's present political and cultural situation, their flag remains one of the absolute greatest and a perfect example of why it's o.k. to break rules sometimes.
Brackish and bold, Lord Baltimore inherited a pair of very clashing banners that, when combined, somehow produces a very hypnotizing design for the Old Line State.
Rounding out the state flags is South Carolina's. Not much worth remarking over, just a great example of a distinctive flag.
Jumping back to the past we find a flag that has flies at the bottom of every page of this website. 18ᵗʰ century American earnestness at its finest.
Crossing the Atlantic we find one of the only national flags with a pedigree comparable to that of the American flag: the Dannebrog of Denmark. Godt gået!
"Dude we're the Land of the Rising Sun. What if we made our flag a big sun?" It's one of the dumbest concepts for a flag, but also one of the best.
While Russia has a lot of great subnational flags, the absolute best has to be that of Perm. It's a polar bear carrying a Gospel book; what's not to like?
Some believe that Chiang Kai-Shek's biggest error was the destruction of the Yellow River dikes. Others think that it was the April 12 Purge. Yet others may argue that it was the 1946 Manchurian offensive. I say that his most egregious mistake was the discarding of the Five Races flag.
Speaking of Asian anti-communists, after few iterations the Republic of Vietnam stumbled onto this great design. Perhaps the only good flag to utilize a yellow field?
And rounding out the list is the flag of the rather obscure historical anomaly of Neutral Moresnet. It's basically the Estonian flag but with better color ordering.