Q. Do coats of arms belong to surnames?
A. No. There is no such thing as a 'coat of
arms for a surname'. Many people of the same surname
will often be entitled to completely different coats of arms, and many of that surname will be
entitled to no coat of arms. Coats of arms belong to individuals. For any person to have a right
to a coat of arms they must either have had it granted to them or be descended in the legitimate
male line from a person to whom arms were granted or confirmed in the past. Coats of arms belong to individuals,
not surnames Coats of arms are not awarded to a family or a name,
but to an individual. This is why there is often more than one coat of arms associated with a given surname.
In most countries, direct descent, usually through the male line, is required for any heir to have the legal
right to bear his ancestor's coat of arms.
A common variant is:
"Some guy in a mall told me he could look up my name in a database and tell me my family arms?
Can I trust him?"
The short answer is this: Your family probably has no coat of arms. Most families don't.
Discovering whether your family has arms is a time-consuming problem in genealogy. Anyone who claims to be able to
find your arms simply by looking in a book or a database is either ignorant or lying. To explain in more detail,
we have to clear up some misconceptions:
There is no such thing as "the arms of Smith". Arms are associated with families only through a
direct patriarchal lineage and could generally only be inherited by a male descendant. A coat was
inherited by a child from his parent, usually somewhat modified. But any individual's claim to use
a specific historical coat of arms rests on a family link with someone acknowledged to have been
granted those arms by a legal heraldic authority.
Many unrelated families share the same surname. Sharing a surname does not mean that you share
the right to the same arms.
A fairly small fraction of society ever used coats of arms at any time. Only a few Smith families
actually bore arms. Arms were used throughout the social scale, but much more so at the top than
at the bottom. Most Americans are descended from lower-class immigrants. Statistically, then,
the chance that an immigrant ancestor of yours bore arms is not very high.
No one on Earth has a complete record of all coats of arms used or granted throughout history.
Therefore, if your name is Smith, and a book or a guy in a mall shows you a coat of arms with
the name Smith under it, that proves nothing at all. You are just as likely to be related to
the founder of the Virginia colony, or the Scottish economist, or the nephew of Senator Kennedy,
or none of the above. The guy in the mall with the database is fudging these issues. His database
is certainly incomplete and probably very inaccurate, and he doesn't care about pedigrees. He is
just out to exploit the similarity between your name and some name in his database.
In order to determine whether or not you could assume a historical coat of arms, you would need much
more than your name: You would need your pedigree traced back to someone who was granted a coat of arms.
The standard of proof will vary with the needs: If you are of Scottish descent and wish to matriculate
arms with the Scottish or british heraldic authority, you'd better have a well-documented pedigree,
probably stretching over several centuries.
On the other hand, if you do live in a country where heraldry is unregulated, your only recourse is usually
to have new and unique arms created for you or be able to trace your ancestry to an armigerous ancestor. It is
also wise to keep in mind that, for the most part, only a male decsendant in the direct male line may apply to assume
the arms of an ancestor. In any case, it behooves you to acquaint yourself with heraldry, its rules and its
aesthetics, so that you can design, or have designed for you, a coat that pleases you and others as well.
Q. But isn't my surname enough to link me to an armigerous person?
A.
In a word, No. Because of cultural teachings and a lack of awareness of the etymology of surnames, many people confuse
their suname with uniqueness and do not unserstand the origin and function of surnames.
Though these days, they act as identifyers in a broad sense, in the past, they acted as
identifyers in a much more specific sense.
For the most part surnames arose from one
of four sources but did not come into popular use (as they are used today) until the late
middle ages. The four sources are:
1. As an identifyer of a particular profession or
type of job. A good example is the profession of stone masons; many men who did this job
would refer to themselves by their given names such as Richard and then their profession,
in this case a mason. Hence the name Richard Mason.
2. Geographic identifyers. Many men would identify themselves using their given names and the
town or area where they came from. For example, Richard de Crecy would be Richard from the town of Crecy.
3. Social identifyers. Many times a unique characteristic of a person would be an identifyer that
eventually became a surname. One example is that of King John I of England. Before he
became king, he was the youngest of four brothers and had no land of his own and during
this time he was often called John Lackland.
4. Last but certainly not least are patronymics. These are identifyers taken from a father's
(and rarely sometimes also from the mother in which case they are matronymics) given name. for example, a son
named Edward of a man named Simon might be known as Edward Simonson.
Many of these eventual surnames would be altered, added to, subtracted from and otherwise changed
over time to make many surnames with a common root surname. This is why what the bucket shops are
selling is such a fraud. There have been thousands of descendants of stone masons in the world throughout
history and very few of them ever got a coat of arms. The direct decendants of the
armigerous Masons may or may not be entitled to assume a coat of arms from their ancestor
but most Masons (most people of any surname for that matter) don't have such illustrious ancestors in
their families and have no right to the property of someone else's ancestor.
Q. How are coats of arms inherited?
A. As above, in the heraldic sense
there is no such thing as a "FAMILY CREST" or a "FAMILY COAT of ARMS". A Coat
of Arms was presented to an individual not to a family. The coats of arms of the sons of noblemen were
different from the coat of arms of the father. In many cases the differences are subtle and might not be readily
noticeable to a casual observer but they often pointed out the position of the son within the
family. Most coats of arms were not "inheritable" as is, but had to be either slightly or drastically altered to
make them unique. These days, the laws on this subject are not so stringent and a direct male descendant throught the
patriarchal line of a past armiger may be allowed to "assume" the arms of his ancestor. However, a significant amount of
proof of descent with documenttation will always be required in order to assume the arms.
If you receive any advertisements from any companies offering you your "Family Crest" or
"Coat of Arms" please be careful before you buy anything. This is a definite "BUYER BEWARE"
situation. A few of these companies are actually being investigated by the Better Business
Bureaus in the various states, while others simply go out of business and re-open with a different
name to avoid investigation. Many will also simply move their operations to countries unwilling to pursue legal action
against them, effectively removing themselves from legal jurisdiction. The best way to avoid problems is to either have
unique arms designed specifically for you or to have legal documented proof to assume historical arms.
Q. Are Bucket shops breaking the law by selling existing coats of arms?
A.
In a word, yes.
Coats of arms, even those of family lines that have become extinct, are protected under both
international copyright laws and intellectual property laws. Bucket shops are making money by selling things that
they have no legal right to sell. It's like stealing someones jewelry and then turning around and selling it. If
the decendants and/or legal holders or heirs to those arms found out that you are using them and claiming them as your
own, you could find yourself on the wrong end of a civil lawsuit.
Once I design and receive payment for arms that I design, the person I designed them for and their designated heirs
become the legal holders the the copyright of those arms (I keep only the rights detailed in the
Heraldry copyright release and
Graphic Design copyright release).
Q. What about those sellers on Ebay who say they will "design" my coat of
arms in photoshop based on my surname?
A.
Unfortunately, these sellers are no better than the bucket shops. They simply look up a historic coat of arms or a blazon
associated with a particular surname and then re-create it in photoshop and sell it to you. It is still not your coat
of arms and you still would not have the legal right to use the arms they sell you. You can not put the arms on stationary
or cards nor use it in any way. The most you can do with it is hang on your wall. Furthermore, the Ebay sellers, as well as the
bucket shops, only give you low quality .jpg images that will often appear blurry and indistinct.
Q. What is a crest?
A. It is a popular misconception that the word
'crest' describes a whole coat of arms or any
heraldic device. It does not. A crest is a specific part of a full achievement of arms: the
three-dimensional object placed on top of the helm.
Q. Will the coat of arms make me noble?
A. No. A coat of arms is simply a very elaborate
identifying device similar to a logo. A peerage (a title of nobility) can only be granted by the
reigning sovereign of a country still having an active monarchy and a peerage system.
Q. What is the difference between registering my coat of
arms and getting my arms granted?
A. By registering your coat of arms, you are,
in essence, obtaining a de facto copywright of the design of your arms. This will prevent anyone
from using your design for themselves. It is similar to a company having a logo or trademark. This
is, in essence, your personal logo. Because of the widespread interest in heraldry and posessing
a heraldic device, this system is used to formalize and make official coats of arms in countries
that have not historically used heraldry or recognized heraldic devices. There are a number of
entities that register coats of arms in various countries but keep in mind that they are
repositories of information and not entities that grant coats of arms on behalf of a sovereign
authority. A grant of arms is somewhat the same thing in that it makes a coat of arms official
but it is actually granted by a heraldic authority which acts on behalf of a sovereign. Currently,
there are 4 entities that grant coats of arms; the UK College of Arms in Great Britain, The Court
of the Lord Lyon in Scotland, The Chief Herald of Ireland and the Cjief Herald of Canada.
If you wish to petition for a grant of your arms through any of these authorities, you will have to
meet certain requirements. For more information on th requirements to petition these authorities
for a grant of arms, please see thier websites
The UK College of Arms
The Court of the Lord Lyon
The Chief Herald of Ireland
The Chief Herald of Canada
Q. What if I want arms designed that do not have the usual
heraldic symbols?
A. As long as you are not planning to apply for a
grant of your unusual arms from an official
heraldic authority, I can design your arms with whatever symbolism you want. On one occasion,
I designed a coat of arms for a Star Trek fan (a serious fan) containing nothing but Klingon
imagery. He wanted to use it for conventions and other Star Trek functions. And example of this
unusual coat of arms is on the Examples page.