"American Flag" redirects here. For the song "American Flag" by Cat Power, see Moon Pix
The flag of the United States consists of 13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. states and the 13 stripes represent the original Thirteen Colonies that rebelled against the British crown. Nicknames for the United States flag include "the Stars and Stripes" or "Old Glory," with the latter nickname coined by Captain William Driver, a 19th-century shipmaster.
Because of its symbolism, the starred blue canton is called the "union." This part of the national flag can stand alone as a maritime flag called the Union Jack (no relation to the flag of the United Kingdom this term more commonly refers to). The Union Jack served as the naval jack for U.S. warships until 2002, when it was replaced by the so-called First Navy Jack as part of the War on Terrorism. However, the Union Jack continues to be used as a jack by U.S. vessels outside the Navy, including those of the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In blazons (a vexillological description using flag terminology), the U.S. flag is described as "a banner Gules, six bars Argent; the canton Azure charged with 50 mullets Argent." This means "a red flag with six white horizontal stripes; the upper quarter nearest the hoist is blue with 50 white stars."
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