Who Is the Mermaid in the Starbucks Logo? The Story Behind the Siren and Seiren

Many people think the Starbucks logo is a mermaid, but the truth reveals a deeper mythological story. Let’s explore the real siren behind the iconic green cup.

Who Is the Mermaid in the Starbucks Logo? The Story Behind the Siren and Seiren

In July 1999, the first Starbucks store in Korea opened near Ewha Womans University. Now it's a coffee shop you can find almost everywhere. People even say, if a Starbucks opens somewhere, the location is already proven.

The Truth Behind the Starbucks Siren vs. Seiren

Starbucks logo @Wikimedia

Starbucks is known for its green color and the siren symbol. The green, called “forest green,” represents nature, freshness, and growth. Maybe it means they want to grow steadily by using fresh coffee beans.

The siren in the Starbucks logo is a mermaid. These days, the image looks like a woman with long hair holding a fish in each hand—but actually, those are her tails.

Usually, when we think of a mermaid, it's the kind with one tail like in fairy tales. But the Starbucks mermaid has two tails. You can clearly see it in their old logo.

The Original Starbucks Siren Logo

In 1971, the founders of Starbucks got the name from Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick. "Starbuck" was the first mate of the whaling ship Pequod.

While looking through old marine books for a logo, they found the Greek myth of the Seiren (Σειρήνες), or Sirens in English. They decided to use this character for the logo. A siren that lures sailors—maybe they wanted to lure customers with coffee too.

If you look at the first Starbucks logo, it’s very different from now. The color wasn’t green—it was brown, like coffee. And the image was much more realistic. A woman with two tails, wearing a crown, showing her bare chest, holding one tail in each hand. Her waist was thick, her belly rounded, and the scales were drawn in detail.

Original Starbucks logo @Wikimedia CC BY-SA 2.0

But over time, people complained that the pose was inappropriate and too revealing. So in 1987, they changed it—her hair now covers her chest. In 1992, they zoomed in more, hiding her belly and lower body. That logo had green letters and a black siren. Then in 2011, they removed the words "Starbucks Coffee" and made the whole thing green. These days, it’s often zoomed in so much you just see the face.

Honestly, I didn’t find the first siren very charming. But now that her face is blown up so big, it feels a bit creepy too. Especially when it’s printed huge on shopping bags—it can be a little much. (Just my personal opinion.)

Starbucks logo used in the 1990s

I used to have a Starbucks mug with the logo printed on it. The siren was black, and the words “Starbucks Coffee” were in green. That version was used from 1992 to 2010.

2024. 11.

In the current logo, you can clearly see the changes: the “Starbucks Coffee” text around the edge is gone, and the black siren is now green.

The Seiren in Greek Mythology

In Greek myths, the Seirenes lived on a rocky island west of Capri, in southern Italy. That place was called Sirenum Scopuli. Sharp rocks surrounded the island, and sailors who passed by would hear the sirens' beautiful songs, fall into a trance, and crash into the rocks. The ships broke apart, and the sailors lost their lives.

In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus had to pass through that area on his way home to Ithaca after the war. He was too curious about the sirens’ song to just pass by. So he had his crew tie him to the mast so he could hear it. As expected, once he heard it, he begged them to let him go. But his crew, following orders, tied him even tighter and rowed hard until they escaped.

But if you look at the sirens in this story, they don’t look like mermaids at all. They’re not half-woman, half-fish. They’re half-woman, half-bird. Human faces, bird bodies—kind of like those ancient bird-woman figures. So how did sirens become mermaids?

Seiren, National Archaeological Museum, Athens @Wikimedia

Mermaid Legends in Northern Europe

In Northern Europe, stories of sea people like Selkies, Merrows, or Havfrue were passed down. Compared to the sirens in Greek myths, these beings were closer to humans. In the 19th century, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales made mermaids known worldwide, and helped shape the modern image of a mermaid.

As time passed, these Northern European legends started to mix with Greek myths. Somewhere along the way, mermaid-looking sirens began to appear. Starbucks probably chose this mixed version for their logo.

Selkie and Merrow

Selkies are seal people from Scottish folklore. If they take off their seal skin, they become beautiful humans. But if someone steals their skin, they have to live as humans. A common story: a man finds a female selkie, hides her seal skin, and marries her. But one day she finds the skin and returns to the sea. Sounds a lot like the Korean tale “The Woodcutter and the Fairy.” Makes you wonder—was there some kind of cultural connection between Korea and the Celts?

Merrows are more magical. They come from Irish stories. Wearing a special cap or cloak, they can move between land and sea. Female merrows are especially beautiful and often fall in love with human men and even marry them.

Havfrue

Havfrue means "mermaid" in Danish. These sea beings appear in Scandinavian tales. They were guardians of the ocean and controlled sailors’ fates. Some had the power to predict the future, especially storms. They often appeared on midsummer nights, dancing under the moonlight.

These Havfrue stories later inspired Andersen’s Little Mermaid, and eventually became the famous Little Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen.

Conclusion

The Starbucks logo shows a siren wearing a crown with a star, holding a tail in each hand. This siren came from the Greek mythological figure Seiren.

In the original Greek stories, the Seiren had the body of a bird and the face of a woman. But after the Middle Ages, these stories blended with Northern European myths, and a new version appeared—one with the tail of a fish, like a mermaid.

Starbucks seems to have chosen this more familiar, mermaid-like version of the siren for its logo.

Seiren (16th–17th century), Rome, Italy @Wikimedia

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