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Am I allowed to use a Coat of Arms for my Surname? That is the million dollar question to which the answer is both YES and NO.
I will cover the DO’s and DON’Ts of using a Coat of Arms for your surname (family name) and also cover the use of related terms such as family crests, heraldry, livery, college of arms, and the like.
- 1. THE SHORT ANSWER (Coats of Arms in Modern Times)
- 2. THE LONG ANSWER (A History of Coats of Arms and Heraldry)
- • The Rise of the Knightly Class
- • The Idea of Chivalry
- • Arms and Heraldry
- • The Practicality of Armor
- • The Importance of the Surcoat
- • The Bayeux Tapestry
- • The Crusades and Feudalism
- • The Chanson de Geste
- • Heraldry becomes GENEALOGY!
- • What The College of Arms Has To Say
- • The Novelty Coat of Arms
- • How A Coat of Arms Works: DESIGN
- • Conclusion
- 3. REFERENCES
1. THE SHORT ANSWER (Coats of Arms in Modern Times)
The short answer to the question: “Am I allowed to use a Coat of Arms for my Surname?” is, as I mentioned, both YES and NO.
I will give brief answers to the question in this section and then give you all the reasons in the form of a long-winded, but super cool, history lesson in the next section.
NO: you are not allowed to use a registered Coat of Arms (COA) if you yourself have not been personally and formally granted permission to do so by the College of Arms.
Arms are granted to individuals, not families. A COA is passed down like a family heirloom within a geneocentric family. Just because your last name is Jones doesn’t give you permission to walk into AT&T Stadium for free any time you want to watch a football game! Neither does it give you the right to claim half the land in Wales for that matter.
YES: you can use a novelty Coat of Arms for fun. In fact, I encourage it! Read on to find out why.
Here’s the “real deal,” COAs are such captivating and mesmerizing works of art, with their accompanying bold imagery, that we are naturally inclined to want to be a part of them in some way, especially when we see family crests and Coats of Arms with our surname on it!
The market for such things arose alongside the increase in demand for online genealogical research, and was created to heighten what I call “family history fancy.”
So, what I am saying is that if a design looks cool and has your surname on it and you want to use it, go ahead and use it for FUN!
2. THE LONG ANSWER (A History of Coats of Arms and Heraldry)
The rise of knights and chivalry, from which coats of arms are ultimately derived, originate with Charlemage in the early 9th century.
Being the “Father of Europe,” it was the Frankish King Charlemagne, who being named Holy Roman Emperor in 800AD, endeavored to introduce a few of the military advancements he had seen in the Roman Empire to his own people in Western Europe.
• The Rise of the Knightly Class
Believe it or not, all of the flurry of fancy and intricacy that are now a part of the design elements that go into a modern Coat of Arms all started with the horse.
That is because the horse created the knight, and knights created coats of arms via the lords whom they served and the livery they wore.
It was all very military back then, and that’s important to remember because the rise of coats of arms for surnames basically arose out of the need for kings in medieval Western Europe to be “warrior kings” in order to be considered successful.
If you didn’t fight for your turf, you got put out.
Authors like Dan Jones and Marc Morris discuss this facet of medieval English rulership in great detail and alacrity in their books “The Plantagenets,” “A Great and Terrible King,” “King John,” as well as a plethora of others.
As the need for a royal house to protect itself in ever more elaborate ways increased, naturally we find a concomitant increase in the military class of people that we now know as knights.
Originally, knights were servants (Anglo-Saxon knecht/cnecht) to the king and were not of royal birth. Even before that, they were hired mercenaries that rich families paid to do their bidding or wreak havoc on their enemies – it was way too expensive back in the Dark Ages to afford your own standing army.
However, over time, as their service became more valued and their relationships deepened with the royal families of the Middle Ages to whom their service was given, knights were granted lands and titles and so eventually joined the aristocracy.
Talk about upward mobility!
Basically by the 17th century this knightly class had morphed ever more powerful to become the military leaders and consuls of the great kings and queens of modern Europe.
Over approximately 800 years these “knights” rose to positions where they were not just protecting royal families, but newly-created nations like England, France, Germany and even Lithuania.
The game of CHESS was even created in their honor!
• The Idea of Chivalry
The origin and organization of the knights themselves originated in modern-day geographic France around the 10th century. From the success of these band of brothers we now idolize as “knights in shining armor” came the idea of chivalry.
Author Thomas Asbridge, in his groundbreaking book, “The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal,” informs us that that the origin of our modern English word chivalry comes from the French ‘chevalerie’ which is derived from the word for knights, or ‘chevaliers’ (Asbridge 2014: 71). In sum, chevaliers practiced chevalerie, make sense? Oui!
He also encapsulates the philosophy of a knight quite succinctly:
“His notion of knighthood, and that entertained by the society around him, was also profoundly shaped by the archetype of the preudhomme – the ideal warrior – literally the ‘best kind of a man.’ By the mid-twelfth century, worthy knights were increasingly expected to display the ‘right stuff,’ to conform to an evolving code of behaviour.” – (Asbridge 2014: 39)
I’ve often wondered if old French preudhomme has any connection to our modern word prude, etymologically speaking? If homme is ‘man,’ and prude is ‘modest,’ then it does seem to fit semantically. Sorry, linguistic tangent there.
• Arms and Heraldry
Speaking of linguistics, today we use the words ARMS and HERALDRY as interchangeable terms; however, it is important to note that at the outset of the development of Coats of Arms in France and England, these terms were distinctly separate!
Author L. G. Pine in his book “The Story of Heraldry” sums it up best:
“It will also be observed that Dugdale speaks of arms, hence armory – the science of bearing arms – not of heraldry. The latter refers to the functions and duties of a herald. … Nevertheless, the usage has been established in modern English to write and speak of Heraldry when we mean armory, and it would be useless now to try to correct this tendency.” – (Pine 1963: 12, emphasis added)
Technically, what L. G. Pine is saying is that ARMORY is the science of the usage of arms in battle to distinguish one person from another and HERALDRY is the cataloging and “regulation of the bearing of arms” (ibid:12) as it became hereditary.
As I understand it, a HERALD is an announcer, someone who was skilled in the delivery of great news and information in the days when all things were verbal and very few people were literate. When someone was claiming arms as their own, they would need to formally announce it to the rest of civilization and that would be done through the mechanism of a “herald.”
As the process became formalized and bureaucratic, we get the science of HERALDRY.
• The Practicality of Armor
HERALDRY and the COAT OF ARMS for a surname, then, came out of the necessity for warriors to distinguish themselves from one another on the battle field.
We’ve all seen the movies where there are hundreds of soldiers fighting in a pitched battle with smoke and blood and gore and screaming all about. It must have been a very disconcerting place to be. Leaders were often obfuscated from one another.
Well, how would you know which soldier is on which side?
How could you tell who was the enemy and who was your compatriot, who you should kill and who you shouldn’t kill?
God forbid you didn’t want to lop someone’s arm off only to discover he was one of your own!
• The Importance of the Surcoat
To solve this conundrum, in the Middle Ages the kings and their warrior knights developed a system of emblazoning symbols and patterns on their SHIELDS, BANNERS, ARMOR, TUNICS and SURCOATS.
A surcoat is a loose outer garment or robe worn over armor and is central to the development of coats of arms. The literal first ‘coats of arms’ were actual coats!
The use of patterns and symbols, face painting and tattoos in war long predated the Middle Ages and indeed must be as old as humanity itself; however, what makes this period different is that it is attached to ARMOR and how that becomes formalized into the science of HERALDRY and COATS OF ARMS for gentrified families.
However, it is the SURCOAT that is the bridge that connects the functionality of ARMS to the emblematics of HERALDRY. A few well-placed quotes will elucidate this!
Author and historian Frances Gies (Read the full Gies & Gies bibliography) discusses the connection of surcoats to heraldry in her book “The Knight in History,” she is worth quoting at length:
“A colorful element of chivalry that grew out of the tournament soon after the First Crusade was the science and art of heraldry. Helmets had grown more massive, with three forms becoming popular . . . The evolution ultimately resulted in the “great helm,” a flat-topped cylinder completely enclosing the head and making the wearer unrecognizable with the visor closed. Consequently identifying crests began to be added, becoming common in the thirteenth century along with insignia painted on shields and embroidered on surcoats and tunics (which were the original “coats of arms”). In time, as the insignia were elaborated into complex family histories, heraldry developed its own recondite vocabulary.” – (Gies 2011: 90-91, emphasis added)
Authors Francis M. Kelly and Randolph Schwabe relay the same sentiment in their work “A Short History of Costume & Armour” (a fantastic read on medieval dress as a whole, btw!):
“I am inclined to think heraldry to have been the real incentive to these outer garments [surcoats]” – (Kelly, Schwabe 2002: 54)
Of course, no quote-fest would be complete without the master himself weighing in. A. C. Fox-Davies in his landmark “A Complete Guide to Heraldry” states quite eloquently:
“This surcoat had afforded another opportunity of decoration, and it had been decorated with the same signs that the wearer had painted on his shield, hence the term “coat of arms.” – (Fox-Davies 1978: 18, emphasis added)
Even before the invention of surcoats and body armor in the 12th and 13th centuries, which replaced the hauberk, or chain mail, which was in use as far back as the 3rd century BC (the Iron Age), various systems of adornment were common on the battlefield. We refer to this as livery.
• The Bayeux Tapestry
We can even witness early livery in the historic Bayeux Tapestry, which is the woven record of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, only about a generation or so before the first stirrings of armory and heraldry.
Interestingly, L. G. Pine has this to say about it: “It would therefore appear that any ‘arms’ used at Hastings by the Norman were symbols assumed at pleasure and in no sense hereditary” (Pine 1963: 16). This means that whatever we see in the Bayeux Tapestry is not heraldic – it’s pre-heraldic if you want to think about it like that.
Pretty insightful, wouldn’t you say?
• The Crusades and Feudalism
Another crucial development around the 12th century that effected the development of the knightly class were the CRUSADES and FEUDALISM.
In a very tight nutshell, the First Crusade, beginning in 1096, recast the knight from vagabond mercenaries into “God’s Warriors” (indeed there were at least 5 Crusades); and the rise of feudalism in the 12th and 13th centuries provided knights the landed power of primogeniture.
• For a full treatment of the KNIGHT, see Frances Gies (2011) “The Knight in History” HarperPerrenial. (Amazon link)
• For a full treatment of the CRUSADES, see Christopher Tyerman (2008) “God’s War: A New History of the Crusades” Belknap Press. (F+H+F link)
• For a full treatment of HERALDRY, see A. C. Fox-Davies (1978) “A Complete Guide to Heraldry” Gramercy Books. (AbeBooks link)
• The Chanson de Geste
As a side note, spurring on the popularity of the knight, chivalry, and heraldry was the chanson de geste, or ‘song of deeds’ usually sung by bards or other skilled troubadours.
The greatest of all of these chansons is the Chanson de Roland, or the Song of Roland, which is more appropriately entitled the Song of Charlemagne as it was dedicated to Charlemagne’s heroism and legacy as his name was “held in awe and mystique” by all (Bridgeford 2014: 182).
These chansons de geste first appeared between the 12th and 15th centuries in France, especially throughout southern regions like Aquitaine.
As one of my favourite medieval rulers, the illustrious Eleanor of Aquitaine was raised from infancy hearing the great orators of her day sing these ancient and ancestral tales of chivalry.
To wit, chansons ranged from the heroic to the downright bawdy. They were uniquely Provençal!
As the popularity of these songs and ideals of chivalry grew, so did the necessity to preserve their memory. Royalty, gentry, nobility and the aristocracy began to formalize their surnames into COATS OF ARMS, which basically became their ID cards.
As popularity became necessity, a Coat of Arms for a surname naturally had to become exclusive so that the “riff raff” or vulgar others could not participate.
Here we find the founding of the College of Arms in England, and its sister institutions across Europe.
• Heraldry becomes GENEALOGY!
As the use of armor faded as a technological innovation across Europe, the need for arms became more CEREMONIAL. In fact, it became GENEALOGICAL.
This is where armory and heraldry fused.
The English College of Arms strictly regulates who can be granted arms and under what conditions.
In fact, one must petition and be GRANTED the right to use a coat of arms formally. There exists very specialized language with literally hundreds of words that define this emic – from colors like or for ‘gold’ or azure for ‘blue’ to the recondite syntactic description of charges (as related to a shield or escutcheon).
Just try and read A. C. Fox Davies’ monumental treatise on heraldry entitled “A Complete Guide to Heraldry” (over 600 pages) and in essence you really have to learn a new language to fully comprehend its meaning!
• What The College of Arms Has To Say
So, now back to the million dollar question: “Am I allowed to use a Coat of Arms for my Surname?” The answer is NO! Don’t take my word for it, here is the explanation from the College of Arms’ own FAQ page:
“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.” – (College of Arms UK FAQ page)
• The Novelty Coat of Arms
Now that we have that settled, let’s move on to the NOVELTY coats of arms that appear everywhere on the internet and in curio shops across the land.
Now that we know the history, let’s get into the practicality!
The practicality that is that as long as you understand that there is NO connection between a novelty coat of arms with your surname on it and it being a “real” coat of arms with historical implications, then you are okay! Go ahead and use it for fun if you want to!
With the rise of individuals being interested in their European genealogy came a parallel increased interest in patronymics, the origin of surnames. This interest spurred massive business opportunities for companies to capitalize on the marketing of surname histories and the selling coats of arms for surnames.
This fantastic void in the market led to the creation of companies like House Of Names who have (along with similar companies) collectively compiled over 1 million surname histories and so-called coats of arms for the unsuspecting.
When I said “fantastic” I literally meant that all of these so-called coats of arms that these companies have created are completely fantastical works of art! Which is to say they are fictionally contrived works of art just to impress the unwary and emotional buyer. They have no practical bearing in genealogical reality.
Sound harsh? Not really.
There is not a single thread of historical accuracy in any of these novelty coats of arms. The example given above is in no way a blanket COA for anyone with the surname Collins, although it looks really cool!
As a sidebar it must be said, some of these companies’ surname histories aren’t bad, but that’s an entirely different topic.
Ironically, although modern novelty COAs are emotionally stage-managed from the realm of the fantastic, their designs are pretty fantastic!
That’s how they get you!
• How A Coat of Arms Works: DESIGN
Here’s how it all works. In heraldry, there are certain predefined elements that go into the creation of any Coat of Arms.
Just like every car necessarily has a hood (bonnet), wheels, transmission, wiring, etc., there are standard sections (see chart below) on every coat of arms which are then stylized so that no two are the same. Each static section is embellished to include elements of a family’s history if one were legitimately applying to the College of Arms.
There are 8 notes in a scale, how you play them creates music, if you get my drift.
If I am looking for a coat of arms for my surname and I input my name into one of these databases, what I get is fictitious.
While it may be visually appealing and intriguing, it is nonetheless not historically or genealogically accurate. Only your own genealogy can either prove or disprove that!
Design elements are re-tuned, just like a great jazz improvisation, to outfit each surname. Granted there are legitimate coats of arms out there and you may even have a genuine connection to one of them; however, again, without the legal granting of one, you cannot claim it.
Not to sound like a dour, pedantic, legalist, but those are the facts.
Please remember that I also said that if my intention to search for a coat of arms for my surname is for FUN, that is also acceptable! Green light on that one.
Many of the design elements used are visually enticing and more often than not make us feel like we have a connection to royalty or nobility.
We become enraptured by the possibility of a connection to our ancestral past far back in the mists of time, and to be honest that is a good thing! If you are imbued with that endorphin rush while searching for a novelty coat of arms, go with the feeling!
It is intuitive to note that at the outset in medieval times, as the number of families calling on the College of Arms to be granted a coat of arms increased, so did the complexity of design elements.
One of the most iconic is the fleur-de-lis, which I’m sure everyone recognizes. The origin of it is the LILY (see image below). Literally, fleur-de-lis means ‘lily flower’ (FR fleur = ‘flower;’ de = ‘possessive particle;’ lis = ‘lily’).
You can see how a fleur-de-lis really looks like a lily and evolved from it as a stylization!
Another iconic piece of heraldic imagery is the LION.
Originally a leopard (although that has been wildly debated by historians and heraldic buffs), the Heraldic Lion has well over 30 variations!
On the subject of heraldic lions, this article is a must-read as section 4 covers heraldic lion attitudes not normally found or explained.
• Conclusion
I remember when I first started doing genealogy and became enamored with all of my newly-found surnames I was just about shaking with excitement thinking that I could have a coat of arms for my surname!
I downloaded hi-res images and even paid a person who “researched” my family surname that I had met in a small curio shop outside of Seattle.
Well, I soon found out that it was all for naught. Or was it?
Although I now fully understand what these novelty Coats of Arms are, that does not diminish my excitement when talking about them or their origins.
As long as you know what they are and learn about the history of heraldry to some degree, they are there to enjoy. If they inspire you to learn more about your family history, where your ancestral roots come from, and take pride in your heritage, that’s awesome! Enjoy them! Go for it!
3. REFERENCES
- Fox-Davies, A.C. 1978. “A Complete Guide to Heraldry.” Gramercy Books.
- Gies, Frances. 2011. “The Knight in History.” HarperPerennial.
- Pine, L.G. 1963. “The Story of Heraldry.” Charles E. Tuttle Company.
- Kelly, Francis M. and Rudolph Schwabe. 2002. “A Short History of Costume & Armour, Vol. 1.” Dover Publications.
- Asbridge, Thomas. 2014. “The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal.” HarperCollins.
- Cantor, Norman F. 2004. “The Last Knight.” Free Press.
- Bridgeford, Andrew. 2005. “1066: The Hidden History in the Bayeux Tapestry.” Walker & Company.
- Morris, Marc. 2016. “A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain.” Pegasus Books.
- Morris, Marc. 2016. “King John: Treachery and Tyranny in Medieval England.” Pegasus Books.
- Jones, Dan. 2014. “The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England.” Penguin Books.
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