Heraldry and Creating A Coat of Arms For Your Family

An introduction to one step in creating a more based family

So you’ve given your kids cool names. Now what? What’s next for strengthening your bloodline?

It’s time to have a symbol for your household. Something timeless and lasting for generations.

Naturally, we’re discussing the Coat of Arms, a key aspect of Medieval European Heraldry and now used worldwide. Since this is a complex subject, this article will serve only as a basic introduction. I’ll oversimplify some concepts for brevity. Once you know enough to get started, you can always do more research from there, or hire someone to do it for you. 

Self-promo time: as a graphic designer and amateur genealogist, I’m capable of helping out. DM me for more info.

Now, let’s start from the beginning: a brief overview of what heraldry is, why it’s important, and how it developed over the ages.

1. The Origins of Heraldry

2. Do you already have a coat of arms?

3. What goes into a coat of arms? Which symbols and colors?

4. Deciding which symbols to use

5. Expanding the coat of arms beyond the shield

6. Combining 2+ coats of arms

7. How to create the actual coat of arms

8. Final Notes

The Origins of Heraldry

Heraldry is rooted in ancient graphic design and branding. Different groups wanted symbols to represent themselves. Wax seal stamps for documents, or specific decorations emblazoned on shields, for instance.

“Heraldry” is a broad term encompassing history, symbolism, genealogy, and aspects of court life, including ceremonies. A quick example of why it matters: the 2001 movie “A Knight’s Tale.” The coat of arms is one part of this.

Uniformity always matters in war.

Viking berserkers for example (which I’ll discuss in a future article) often wore wolfskins before battle. Celtic warriors used blue war paint. South Africans had the Nguni shield. Etc. Warrior classes around the world always had ways to distinguish friend from foe.

At any rate, this is where we get “coat of arms” as a term. It’s literal. Knights in the Middle Ages would have specific symbols on their surcoats, armor/shield, horses, flags, etc. You can still see this in modern jousting tournament reenactments. It’s meant to be recognizable and memorable.

“Ah yes, yellow-black-checkers, we meet again.” “I’ll gouge your eye out this time, blue-with-yellow-stripe.” w/e

This tradition is relatively new as far as traditions go, but it does continue in modern times. “Modern heraldry” was a recent design trend that many businesses picked up.

A coat of arms is typically patrilineal except in cases of a female heiress who takes on her father’s design. But this does vary; Latin heraldry being a notable exception compared to French-British or German-Nordic designs.