Wikipe Tan
Wikipe-tan (ウィキペたん Wikipetan) is a
personification of Wikipedia created in January 2006
by the editor then known as Kasuga.[a] She is an unofficial
mascot of Wikipedia and is used in multiple wikiprojects.
The -tan in "Wikipe-tan" is a hypocoristicsuffix, in the
form of a Japanese honorific. Like the OS-tans, she is a
product of moe anthropomorphism.
Wikipe-tan is the mascot character for WikiProject Anime and manga and WikiProject Holidays' Christmas task force; she was also the mascot for Admin coaching, the Counter-Vandalism Unit, and a contender for the Wikipedia mascot. In addition, Wikimedia Hong Kong uses Wikipe-tan images and cosplay during functions and promotions. Wikipe-tan has occasionally been treated as a mascot for Wikipedia or its community in news reports.
The puzzle pieces worn by the character are from an earlier version of the Wikipedia puzzle-ball logo. ワィ is apparently a misspelling of ウィ ("wi"), the first syllable of the Japanese katakana transliteration of "Wikipedia", while 祖 is a kanji character apparently changed from the puzzle-ball's 袓, the latter being a Chinese character not used in Japanese. The most up-to-date picture by Kasuga shows her wearing the characters 維 (being the first character of Wikipedia's Chinese name) and the correct Japanese katakana ウィ from the current Wikipedia logo.
![PK409 Wikipe tan.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7102b1_8018b0beaed8416e8df617dd616a867a~mv2_d_1500_1500_s_2.png/v1/fill/w_286,h_286,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/PK409%20Wikipe%20tan.png)