We are getting asked about "verified accounts" quite often recently, so lets try to clear this up: There are no verified accounts on Mastodon like there are on Twitter. Some Mastodon instances have a custom emoji that looks like the verified icon on Twitter and people put that in their display name, probably because it looks fancy. It does not mean anything though.
Using "rel=me" is a fine thing.
But as many people use similar icons (custom emojis) in their account name, it is some kind of misleading because it can not be dstinuished from the "real" verified icon put there when using "rel=me".
Moreover, the emojis behind an account name are obstacles for those followers using a screen reader as screen readers alsoways read everything, every single emoji, every time.
I think using emojis in the account name is not necessary.
@Urmeline @Tusky hmm. in both masto web and tusky, the rel="me" distributed verification icons appear next to the urls in your profile metadata that have been verified, not beside your account name
i think it'd be very difficult to confuse them for one another 
you make a good point about screen readers! although, it seems like a pretty obvious improvement that can and should be made to screen reader software? things like "how to pronounce this user's display name, including whether to speak out the emojos at the end" should be user-customisable if they aren't already 
@Urmeline @00dani @Tusky I can't speak for other screen reader users of course, but the use of emojis doesn't bother me all that much. It is true that every emoji is displayed on its own line, but that is only a small inconvenience, especially if the TTS voice is set to a high speed. I think it only starts to become a bit annoying if a person has more than say, 4 emojis in their name. And I assume that at that point, it doesn't look well, either.
@00dani yes right (just verified our homepage thx for the reminder 😅)