Heraldry for families: colors, symbols and what they mean
Heraldry is a visual language more than eight hundred years old. A coat of arms is built from a small set of parts, each with a name: the shield's colors (tinctures), the way it is divided, bold bands called ordinaries, and the pictures placed on it, called charges. Once you know the parts, you can read any coat of arms, and design your own.
The tinctures (colors)
Heraldry uses a short list of colors, called tinctures. Two are metals, gold and silver, and the rest are colors. The meanings below are the traditional associations from W. Cecil Wade's The Symbolism of Heraldry (1898).
| Name | Plain English | Kind | Traditional meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Or | gold | metal | generosity and elevation of the mind |
| Argent | silver | metal | peace and sincerity |
| Gules | red | color | military strength and magnanimity |
| Azure | blue | color | truth and loyalty |
| Vert | green | color | hope, joy and loyalty in love |
| Purpure | purple | color | royal majesty, sovereignty and justice |
| Sable | black | color | constancy |
| Tenné | orange | color | worthy ambition |
The rule of tincture
Never put a metal on a metal or a color on a color: gold on blue, yes; red on blue, no. The rule exists because heraldry had to be read across a battlefield, and it still makes designs readable from across a room. The Family Creed Generator follows it automatically and warns you if your edits break it.
Dividing the field
A shield can be split into two or more colors. When a symbol sits across the split and swaps colors on each side, it is called counterchanged.
Lines of partition
Dividing lines do not have to be straight. Wavy lines suggest water; embattled ones, a castle wall.
The ordinaries
Ordinaries are the bold geometric bands that make a coat of arms recognizable at a glance.
stands for leadership and achievement
stands for protection and work well done
stands for readiness to serve
stands for protection and defense
stands for faith
stands for resolve
is a mark of honor
stands for protection of what is inside
Charges: animals and symbols
Charges are the pictures placed on the shield. Every one below was drawn for this site and is free to use. The italic name is its heraldic term.
high aims and a guiding light
hope and growing glory
love and sincerity
glory, warmth and new beginnings
hope and joy
light and purity
strength, long life and deep roots
guardianship and trust
hope and steadiness
learning and knowledge
safety and steadfastness
steadfastness and challenges overcome
plenty and the harvest of hope
wisdom and truth
travel and pilgrimage
faith
courage and justice
zeal and passion
honest work
strength and growth
patience and great things from small beginnings
fairness and justice
victory and excellence
direction and adventure
freedom and the written word
creativity
good luck and lasting things
health and plenty
endurance through every season
music and harmony
home and welcome
patience and the value of time
peace
unity: two joined as one
courage that does not quit
strength and fierce protection of family
loyalty to the pack
quick wits and cleverness
wisdom and watchfulness
peace and harmony; slow to fight
vision, action and freedom
readiness for any task
love, kindness and play
hard work and community
peace and constant love
patience and long life
faithfulness and courage
independence and curiosity
How to read a blazon
A blazon is a coat of arms described in words, precisely enough that an artist could draw it without seeing it. It always runs in the same order: the field first, then the main band or charge, then anything else. Colors come after the thing they color, and are capitalized.
Every design made with the Family Creed Generator comes with its own blazon, written automatically from the design.
Crest, coat of arms, shield: which is which?
Strictly, the shield (escutcheon) is the main design, the crest is the small figure on top of a helmet or wreath above it, and the coat of arms or achievement is the whole thing together, often with a motto scroll. In everyday English, “family crest” means the whole design, and that is how this site uses it too.
Is there a coat of arms for my surname?
Usually not in the way it is sold. Historically, a coat of arms belonged to one person and passed to their heirs, not to everyone who shares a last name, so a “Smith family crest” bought by surname is someone else's design. Making your own is the honest alternative, and in most countries you are free to use a design you created. In Scotland, arms are regulated by the Court of the Lord Lyon.