The mythical creature in the Starbucks logo is a siren.
Starbucks’ emblem depicts a two-tailed siren, a figure drawn from ancient maritime mythology. The founders chose the image partly because the company’s name was connected with nautical imagery and the coffee trade. The original 1971 logo showed a more detailed, bare-breasted figure surrounded by the words “Starbucks Coffee, Tea, Spices.”
Later redesigns simplified and cropped the illustration. In 1987, the company introduced a green-and-black version, and in 2011 Starbucks removed the surrounding wordmark so the siren could stand alone. Although many people casually call the figure a mermaid, “siren” is the company’s preferred and historically specific description. The two tails are an artistic feature rather than a standard requirement of every siren in classical mythology.