Carol asks…
How should I begin to research what the symbols represent on a family crest or coat of arms?
admin answers:
Both the colors and symbols have meaning on the coat of arms and family crests google Crest’s coat of arms or genealogy
Mandy asks…
Family Crest Heraldry meanings?
Could anyone helps us out on the meaning behind these symbols (Taken from various family crests not just paternal):
Upward Chevron ^ (Black)
Birds (Green)
Bow (As in Bow & Arrow without the arrow)
Yellow Crescent moons with the two points upwards
Yellow Cross with blue vertical stripe
Lions
Castle Tower
Red rings
3 pronged Red Iron cross on top of a upward chevron with circles inside
Griffin heads
admin answers:
Heraldry & the Parts of a Coat of Arms
http://www.fleurdelis.com/coatofarms.htm
The Meanings Behind the Symbols
http://www.fleurdelis.com/meanings.htm
Some FREE and shareware Heraldry programs for designing your coat of arms.
Http://www.digiserve.com/heraldry/hersoft.htm
Mark asks…
Fall of the hosue of usher? Usher family crest?
What symbols would you put on their crest?
I’m drawing a blank and i can’t think of anything :/
I read the story, and i understand it, but i can’t seen to figure out four symbols that describe the family 😐
admin answers:
Have a look at the link posted below, maybe that will help.
Http://www.houseofnames.com/fc.asp?sId=&s=Usher
Hope this helps.
Lisa asks…
What’s the object on the Coulter/Colter/O’Coltair crest?
I’m looking at the crest of Coulter/Colter/O’Coltair. It’s got blue strips and behind them some sort of symbol (google “Colter family crest” in images and you’ll see what I mean). It looks like some extra tall thin version of the clubs playing card symbol, or a three bulbed lamp, or kind of like a pawnbrokers symbol. What the heck is it?
admin answers:
You asked this 2 weeks ago and I told you the answer: it’s the heraldic way of representing ermine, the winter fur of the stoat. Did you think I was lying or something?
If you still don’t believe me, go here.
Richard asks…
Translation of Elements of my Family Crest?
So I just recently found my family crest, and I’m super interested in what the symbols represent.
Here’s the link to it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:POL_COA_Gryzima.svg
Much appreciated! God bless.
admin answers:
If you really are a member of the noble Polish Gryzima clan (as opposed to simply having a surname that some members of the Gryzima clan have – surnames alone prove nothing) then yes, you share this ‘herb’ (Polish coat of arms) with all other members of that clan. Polish heraldry is unique in the world in that Polish coats of arms belong collectively to clans, whereas everywhere else they belong to individuals.
The animals on the shield look like wolves, and given that an alternative name for this ‘herb’ is Lupus, I think we can assume that’s what they are. What they symbolise could be anything or nothing. Contrary to what a lot of people want to believe, there is no consistent set of symbolic meanings to heraldic devices – they mean whatever the person who first designed the arms meant them to mean. Maybe there is a clan legend about wolves. Maybe an ancestor of the clan had the nickname ‘Wolf’. Maybe the home village of the founder of the clan was famous for the number of wolves around there. Maybe the clan wanted their enemies to know that they were as swift and fierce as wolves. Or anything. Or nothing – maybe they just thought it looked good.
Same with colours – colours in heraldry have no regular ‘meaning’. Red and white are of course the national colours of Poland, and there *may* be an allusion to that here. But not necessarily: in heraldry it’s a rule that you can only put a ‘colour’ (red, blue, green, purple, black) on a ‘metal’ (white/silver, yellow/gold) or vice versa, so the possible colour combinations are quite restricted.
The feathery stuff coming out from under the helmet is called the ‘mantling’ – it;s a stylised representation of the cloth knights used to wear on their helmets to keep the sun off. Mantling is always in the main colour and main metal of the shield.
All Polish coats of arms include a crown which presumably symbolises the clan’s noble status.
The feathers sprouting from the helmet are the ‘crest’, which originally was just what it says – an ornamental object that knights wore on top of their helmets as an extra aid to identification. A knight could use a bunch of ostrich feathers for a crest, as here; a simple style of crest that was very popular. A more elaborate way of making a crest was modelling up a three-dimensional figure, often out of boiled leather. If you look at other Polish coats of arms on Wikipedia you’ll see that several have a bunch of feathers, while others have human figures, animals, geometric shapes, all sorts. Some may have some historical, legendary or symbolic meaning; others may just be ornamental.
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