How to Create a Coat of Arms for Your Family

Katharine is a lifelong student of history and an admitted Anglophile. She has studied in Scotland and England.

Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom — Regal Coat of Artillery of the United kingdom

Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

What Is a Coat of Arms?

Strictly speaking, the coat of arms is the design on an individual'due south shield. Originally, the colors and symbols were meant to distinguish the individual in battle, competitions. Nowadays, what many commonly refer to equally the family unit crest or coat of arms is actually a heraldic achievement, which consists of the coat of arms (shield) along with some or all of the following elements: crown, helm or helmet, mantling, torse, crest, supporters, guild, and motto.

How to Make a Family Crest

Traditionally, a family crest can be legally used simply if given to you by the appropriate authority (e.g., in the United Kingdom, the King of Arms). Yous tin can trace your genealogy to come across whether your family has a coat of arms, and there are many services to help you with this (nosotros will discuss this afterwards in the article).

Withal, if you don't accept a coat of artillery, past all ways create one of your ain to stand for you or your family unit. Traditional heraldry has many customs and rules to abide by. You can certainly research these and follow them to see what you can create, but you can as well permit your creativity flow free.

Tips for Choosing Symbols

When deciding what symbols to include in your family crest, hither are some ideas for yous to retrieve about:

What is your ancestral background? Tracing your family line back to medieval times (or further) can give yous ideas of traditional symbology used by your ancestors or fifty-fifty by your ethnicity.
What values are of import to you or your family? Or you may inquire: What are your best characteristics? Many values, attributes, or characteristics have associated symbology. For example, justice is normally associated with a rest or scale.
What are your hobbies or interests? Is it music? Sports? Reading? If, for instance, yous love to play badminton, a racket and/or shuttlecock can be used to represent that.
What is the principal purpose of your business organisation or organization? If you're designing a glaze of arms for a visitor or organisation, recollect about what the principal purpose of the organization is. Boil information technology downwards to a few key themes to narrow downwards your choices for symbols.

If you lot are expert with PhotoShop or a program such as paint.internet (which is free to download), y'all tin search the links I have provided for free clip art that you tin utilize, mayhap along with images of your ain, to construct your crest that fashion.

Alternatively, you lot could determine what you want the elements to be and have an online service create the crest for you, which will cost you some money, and varies greatly from most $30 to $250.

A third choice is to build one with a gratis program you tin discover online and print it out from in that location. Links for all these are establish in the links department below.

Sites to Create Your Own Coat of Artillery

There are many sites that help you create your ain design. Some volition let you choose from elements from templates and put them together. Others will generate one based on your choices or a personality test.

All Family Crests: Glaze of Arms Generator
Fleur-de-lis Designs: Custom Crests
GraphicSprings: Crest Logo
MyTribe101: Family Crest and Coat of Artillery Generator
MyBlazon: Coat of Arms Maker
Roll for Fantasy: Coat of Artillery Generator

Tracing Your Genealogy

How to Find Your Coat of Artillery

If you are of Western European descent, you may take a glaze of arms in your family unit line. However, that doesn't mean everyone from Western Europe has one; recall that they were traditionally granted merely to nobility. And even if y'all are not from Western European descent, you may still take a version of a coat of arms.

Parts of a Glaze of Arms (Heraldic Accomplishment)

Higher up, you will come across the example of the Royal Coat of Arms of the Britain with the nearly prevalent components labeled. Beneath, we volition go over the diverse components, their significance or symbolic significant, and common design features.

Coat of Arms

As stated previously, colloquially, "coat of arms" tin can refer to the whole heraldic achievement or the shield. Formally, information technology is the design etched and painted onto the shield, or escutcheon. The glaze of arms has many design elements.

Shield (Escutcheon)

Likewise known as an escutcheon, the shield represents the actual shield used by knights in combat. There are many escutcheon shapes:

These are just several of the near mutual shapes, with variations dependent largely on region and time flow. Going off of these basic designs, many escutcheons are designed past mixing and matching elements to make always more complex designs.

Inescutcheons

The main shield may be adorned past ane or more smaller shields called inescutcheons to represent familial lines, inheritance, or territorial claims.

Chart of the most common heraldic shield or escutcheon shapes.

Wikimedia Commons

Tincture

Traditionally, there are just a limited number of colors, or tinctures, used in designing a coat of artillery. They can be divided into three major groups:

Metals: Silver, gold
Colors: Green, blue, royal, reddish, black
Stains: Mulberry, blood cherry, tawny

The tinctures used can carry unlike meanings:

Silver: Peace
Gold: Generosity
Green: Hope or joy
Blue: Truth or loyalty
Purple: Royalty
Red: Might
Black: Grief

Dominion of thumb: When choosing which tinctures to apply, remember not to employ color on colour, or metallic on metal. This is a classic heraldic rule. For example, if the background is aureate, the ordinary (discussed below) can be annihilation only argent.

Ordinary

Ordinaries are geometric shapes or bands that split up the shield into segments, and they also carry symbolic meaning. The ordinary that you lot choose volition also depend in role on what other elements yous want to appear on the shield. You tin can choose not to use an ordinary at all and just take your symbols on the shield as your pattern.


Ordinary	Advent	Meaning
Chief	Broad band across the meridian	Authority, leadership, wisdom
Pale	Vertical band down the middle	Armed forces forcefulness
Curve	Sash; broad band diagonally beyond the shield	High military rank or laurels
Fess	Wide horizontal band across the centre of the shield	Readiness to human action
Cantankerous	Vertical and horizontal bands crossing each other	Christianity
Saltire	"Cross of St. Andrew"; X-shaped	Endurance of hardship, martyrdom
Chevron	Angled band pointing up (like the roof of a house)	Protection

Charge

Charges are symbols placed on the background and/or the ordinary. Charges can be any object, simply are most commonly things such equally humans, animals, fish, birds, mythical creatures, elements of nature, tools, or religious symbols. Like all elements of a glaze of arms, charges also take symbolic significance. There are so many that nosotros won't go through them hither, simply you tin can kickoff learning more about the symbology of charges you cull in the link provided.

Many of the items on this listing are representations of other symbols that appear with a coat of arms, such as supporters, which we'll discuss in a moment, and the lines of partition on a shield. If you're making your own glaze of arms, you lot'll desire to choose a charge or charges that represent you in some way. For example, you might want to use a bong tower, which signifies integrity, or a boar which means bravery. For a personal touch, you lot might cull a fountain pen if y'all're a author, or tragedy and comedy masks if you are a lover of theater.

Helmet

A captain, or helmet, is usually placed on top of the shield. Sometimes, it will rest on height of a crown, every bit in the case of royalty. The style of helmet that an individual uses depends upon his rank in the aristocracy.

Royalty, for example, are represented by a gold helmet with several bars on the front, and carmine or bluish silk, used to pad the inside of a helmet, volition show through the bars.
A nobleman will use a helmet of silvery.
A knight will utilize one of steel with an open visor.
A squire or admirer will accept a helmet with a closed visor.

As y'all see, the rules are quite extensive and circuitous. For your purposes, you tin can choose a helmet to your liking, or choose not to use a helmet on your coat of arms at all. Many coats of artillery utilise crowns or coronets in place of helmets.

Crest

The crest is a decorative piece—unremarkably a sculpture—placed on superlative of the helmet. Historically, it was worn on top of a knight's helmet—specially for those participating in tournaments. However, it is more often used as a personal insignia in place of the coat of arms (eastward.g., equally a badge on documents, clothing, personal items, buildings, etc.). This usage lead to the defoliation of "crest" for "coat of arms."

Generally a personal device, information technology can exist used to represent the private or the family—hence the term "family crest"—but it tin can besides represent entities, such equally governments, organizations, and businesses. Although yous often merely see i crest on top of the helm, y'all may also see 2 or more in use on some achievements, so don't let that be a limit. Use as many equally you lot come across fit.

Like the charges on a coat of arms, the crest tin can be any object, and each object carries a symbolic meaning. For example, a deer signifies harmony, a domestic dog represents loyalty, and an elephant represents strength. Over again, refer to the link to the list of symbology of charges above to get an idea of what objects you may desire represented on your achievement.

The crest frequently holds or leans on an object. These are frequently weapons, only they can be other things, such as a shepherd'southward crook, a walking stick, or even a gardening tool. If yous're a musician, for example, yous could accept your crest belongings a flute or a guitar.

Torse

Besides called a wreath, the torse is a twisted piece of silk or other material that encircles the top of the helmet and is meant to necktie the crest, helmet, and mantling together. It can also exist used to decorate an animal in the crest or on a charge, adorning the animal's head or neck. In some cases, the torse is replaced with a crown or coronet. The torse consists of two colors—one from the medals and one from the colors—and are usually the same every bit the principal colors on the coat of artillery.

Mantling

The mantling can be seen as a decorative flair for the helmet and crest Information technology drapes around the helmet and flows down to the sides of the shield. It was worn past knights in battle and is tied to the helmet past the torse to protect the knight from elements. The mantling can exist depicted every bit intact or tattered, the latter to indicate difficult fighting in battles. It usually has the same colors as the torse.

Supporters

Supporters are figures or objects on either side of the shield meant to be holding upward or framing the shield. Equally with most heraldic elements, the supporters have symbolic meaning and are more often than not animals—either real or mythical.

Compartment

The compartment is the landscape—ordinarily either a bed of rocks, a mound of grass, or a wreath—underneath the escutcheon and supporters. Traditionally said to represent an individual's land, present, it can stand for anything. For instance, sea-faring entities may choose to describe a lake or ocean—especially if the supporters are aquatic animals.

Motto

Ordinarily a phrase printed in Latin on a ribbon or scroll, the motto can be anything from a battle weep to a slogan to declaration. Although the most mutual language is Latin, you can use whatsoever language you like. The motto can appear at the top or bottom the achievement.

Examples of some mottos are as follows:

A te pro te = From thee, for thee

Amo, ut invenio = I love as I observe

Celer et audax = Swift and assuming

Corage sans peur = Courage without fear

You get the idea. Imagine the fun you lot could accept coming up with your own motto! It can go to a higher place the whole coat of arms, or beneath. Oftentimes, the proper noun of the family is also constitute either higher up or beneath the coat of arms on a scroll or ribbon.

History of Heraldry and Why It Is Fascinating

An Overview of the History of Heraldry

The tradition of having a glaze of arms has been commonplace in Europe since the early on 12th century. The original coats of arms were simple, using just a scattering of dissimilar shapes and color combinations. Only as more individuals were granted their own glaze of artillery, the designs became more and more than complex. Although originally granted to only individuals past the ruling monarch, not to families, in 13^th century England, these beautiful symbols could be passed down from begetter to son. In this way, the family "crest" evolved.

Past 1400, these were officially codified into English law. It was forbidden, for example, to display a coat of arms that had not been approved by the crown, and the meaning of various symbols and colors used on the crests were indexed and regulated. Even at present, new coats of artillery may only be granted either past the Queen herself, or past an authorization known every bit the King of Arms.

Today, coats of artillery or crests are used to symbolize more than just individuals and families. You may see them used equally symbols for nations, governments, businesses, sporting teams, clubs, and other organizations. However, nearly individuals of European descent, especially Western European descent, tin can trace their family genealogy to observe what their family glaze of arms is.

I promise yous now have a practiced basis for agreement heraldry and family crests. Every bit you tin tell, this is a very circuitous arrangement, which requires farther study if yous want to become well versed in the pregnant of its symbolism. It is a fascinating study, and there is no shortage of splendid resources on the internet and in impress near heraldry and coats of arms, many of which you will find in the following links department.

References

Higher of Artillery. FAQs: heraldry. Accessed Apr. fifteen, 2020.
Encyclopedia Japan. Brief Overview of Japanese family Crest "Kamon". DoyouknowJapan.com. Accessed Aug. 25, 2020.
English Heritage. Our Guide to Heraldry. Accessed Aug. xviii, 2020
International Heraldry & Heralds. Accessed Aug. 18, 2020.
Your Family unit History Mag. Coats of Arms. Celebrated Britain. Accessed Aug. 18, 2020.

This content is accurate and true to the all-time of the writer's cognition and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized communication from a qualified professional.

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