Coats of Arms

[Hlaoroo]

So, how many of you guys have made your own coats of arms? If you have, wanna share them and tell us about what they mean? If you haven't made one, why not think about doing it and sharing it here? It's fun and it gives you a chance to think about yourself and get to know yourself and what's important to you.

Here's my coat of arms. Thanks heaps to Cosmic Coyote who helped me out with his expertise in heraldry and to Geckozy for drawing this for me.

This is the shield that forms the bulk of my coat of arms. Once it's done I'll share the full version showing my motto, supporters and helm. For now, enjoy this:



Here's what my coat of arms means:

The cross and the star represents both the Southern Cross (a constellation/asterism down here that's on the Australian flag) and also my faith. The plant is a sprig of Tasmanian Blackwood representing me (as my fursona) and my Tasmanian heritage.
The green colour means "hope and joy" which is what my faith gives me. Green is also my favourite colour and to me represents the greenness of Tasmania and the bush I grew up in - always living, always growing - which is how I want to be: living life to the fullest and always learning and growing as a person.
The white represents peace and tranquillity as well as sincerity and honesty. I like the peace and calmness you get from nature as well as that which you get from knowing God is in control, and I strive to be sincere and honest in everything.

It was a lot of fun to make and, I think, packs a lot of meaning into a simple design.

So what about you guys? Do you have coats of arms? If not, why not make one and share it here?

[CosmicCoyote]

Here's my coat of arms. Thanks heaps to Cosmic Coyote who helped me out with his expertise in heraldry and to Geckozy for drawing this for me.

Heh, once again, no problem.

I've made quite a few coats of arms for various projects (usually fantasy or alternate history-based), so if anyone's interested and wants help with things, feel free to contact me.

As for my own personal coat of arms? I actually have never put it to paper, though I already have it in my head. Maybe I'll finally get around to doing that~

[Render]

Nice one, Furr! Great work you three!

We (my family) actually have a coat of arms, but I don't know what's on it... I'll try to remember to take a picture when I'm home on Openermas.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Really nice coat of arms Furr! It looks really nice!

[Render]

So, as promised, here it is:

[Amazee Dayzee]

That is also very nice too Render! I love how it has come out!

[CosmicCoyote]

It's a very interesting set of arms, Herr Marquardt.

The second and third quarters (bend sable on argent top right, three bends gules on argent bottom left) I would presume signify a locale - there are so many variations of those I don't particularly recognize the area. A place like Baden has, for example, a bend gules on or, while Köln was a cross sable on argent. I'd guess from the name that it's from one of the old imperial margraviates/markgrafschafte just because of the 'marq', which comes from march (old Imperial borderlands). Totally a guess, though.

I should note I'm assuming the laurels and such on the bends are for artistic rendering rather than being a part of the arms proper. If not, their description becomes much more complicated.

The fourth quarter (cross within heart within rose within annulet on azure bottom right) is easy enough to figure out. It's the Luther rose, and pops up frequently on German coats of arms as a result of the religious wars following the Reformation. Pretty simple meaning - "yes I am Protestant." (or at the least, serve a Protestant prince).

The first quarter (spade head on azure top left) is the most interesting (to me) though. While it's not like I've never heard of a spade being on a coat of arms they are either usually symbolic or stylized (something akin to the card suit, like this) or the full spade (something like this) I don't think I've seen just a properly rendered head of a spade before. It's intriguing.

[Render]

Thanks very much for those explanations since I had absolutely no idea what that all meant.

The fourth quarter (cross within heart within rose within annulet on azure bottom right) is easy enough to figure out. It's the Luther rose, and pops up frequently on German coats of arms as a result of the religious wars following the Reformation. Pretty simple meaning - "yes I am Protestant." (or at the least, serve a Protestant prince).

That sounds right, we're in a protestantic area.

I'd guess from the name that it's from one of the old imperial margraviates/markgrafschafte just because of the 'marq', which comes from march (old Imperial borderlands). Totally a guess, though.

Very good guess! Marquardt comes from Markwart what means the Wart/Wärter (warden) of a Mark (march).

[Oblivious Adobo]

Here's my family's Coat Of Arms if anyone's interested, censored out the name because I don't feel like sharing it.

[Amazee Dayzee]

For some reason, it reminds me of Gryffindor and I can't understand why. xD

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

probably cause this is the Gryffindor crest from the movies:

both have a helmet on top of a shield with a lion facing left. plus there's a griffon on top of his coat of arms.

[Oblivious Adobo]

Pfft, never crossed my mind that my family crest looked like Gryffindor.

[CosmicCoyote]

The shield is in chief three pallets engrailed sable on argent, in base a lion rampant on gules between three escallops. I think that's how you'd describe it...

The lion's pretty... generic as far as symbolism goes. Yes, there's a good few things you could associate with it, with some minor variations based on where in Europe your family is from, but above all else it signified nobility. The seashells, on the other hand are a bit more specific and give some further hint on origins - as you might imagine, it's pretty much only used in places by the coast and tends to signify prosperity brought on by the sea, if that makes sense - commerce, that sort of thing. It can also signify traveling, as if the seashells were picked up on foreign shores. That the griffin in the crest of the helm is holding another seashell reiterates the importance of it, at least in this coat of arms.

[Amazee Dayzee]

One of these days when I'm not lazy I'll look into my family crest.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

I know where my family comes from but I don't know if we have a coat of arms (or at least one that is easily accessible). I don't really care enough to ask my grandpa and google seems to have no information on my specific clan (my last name is pretty common in Ireland and there are multiple unrelated clans with it.)

[Oblivious Adobo]

My family's name is pretty common as well, so I asked about the family coat of arms years ago. I'm glad I did though b/c my sister ended up getting it as a tattoo and my family put it on my late grandpa's plaque for him.

[CosmicCoyote]

My own family's arms are actually pretty dreadfully boring, which is partially why I've worked on making my 'own' coat of arms. I mean, suppose there's nothing wrong with the arms (and it's easy to memorize), just a bit simplistic.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Not sure if this is accurate or not or if I have to go ask my paternal family about it, but this is what I got from Googling it so I hope it is somewhat accurate.

[Render]

Would you mind to share a pic?

[CosmicCoyote]

Others have been so kind to, guess there's no reason why I can't.

The online ones I can find are for some reason are all small and have horrible .jpg pixelation, but the arms are simple enough it doesn't matter. Here you go:


Azure, three crosses-crosslet in bend argent.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Your coat looks very pretty Cosmic!

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

well if we're guessing, all the results for my last name seem to be variations of this:


but according to some sources there are multiple unrelated septs whose names were anglicized to Connolly, so this may not be for my family at all.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Well it does look Irish but that may be because of all of the green.

I've just decided that mine looks Polish without knowing where my last name came from since I am partially Polish. >_>

[CosmicCoyote]

The back half of the name is pronounced like 'dough', right? The suffix -eau (or -eaux) means it's almost certainly French. I saw it a lot when I was younger and lived not too far from Louisiana - it's everywhere in Cajun country.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Well I am partly French but I never associated French with blue, but I guess it is now and yes that is how its pronounced.