Family coat of arms.

[Foxbat]

Being a Scot of Irish descent, it left me both amused and bemused when I looked at my family (O'Brien) coat of arms.

O'Brien Coat of Arms, Family Crest - Free Image to View - O'Brien Name Origin History and Meaning of Symbols

O'Brien Coat of Arms, Family Crest - Free Image to View - O'Brien Name Origin History and Meaning of Symbols

www.irishsurnames.com

Family motto: The strongest hand uppermost

It seems that I can proudly wear three lions on my chest

Probably worth noting that the English three lions is derived from the Plategenets (french). Wether there's any relationship between them and the O'Briens is something I've yet to uncover.

Anyhoo. That's mine. What's yours?

 

[Venusian Broon]

Actually you seem to have real lions on your crest. Aren't the English one technically Leopards?

Mine is a red stag looking directly at you:

Very Scottish I feel, when were there lions or leopards anywhere near the UK ??? (Oh and this is for proper spelling of the name, Thomson. Why insert a useless P into it???? ) Also this is in the same colours as Clyde FC. Must be right.


However, I am somewhat sceptical about such things. Aren't crests awarded/made for specific families, rather than whole groups of people with the same surname, so this is possibly a crest for a famous grouping of Thomsons. It's a bit like Tartan. Technically Thomson has a tartan, but Thomson is not really a highland name, more a Pictish East coast/Southern name (and possibly has it's origins in the crusades anyway) and so they are kinda 'co-opted' by the Campbell clan officially for Tartan purposes. (There is an official dress Tartan, but it was made for a Lord Thomson) Anyway, the whole Tartan thing is Victorian makey-up anyway.

 

[Foxbat]

You might be right about leopards. That particular animal was used to depict sly and duplicitous behaviour in medieval times - an animal particulary associated with Edward - Hammer Of The Scots.

 

[Ursa major]

My surname** could well be an (extreme) anglicisation of the one with the following coat of arms:

Ironically, given the central image in the coat of arms, it seems that both the original name and its extreme anglicisation are, to put it mildly, inapproriate for any worthy practioners of the trade/art the name indicates.


** - The oldest bearer of my surname of which I'm aware was born in County Down around the beginning of the 19th century. He is someone whose ancestors are unlikely to have been "planted" there, either from England or Scotland, so there's a reasonably good chance anglicisation of the name did occur.

 

[Vertigo]

I only have a black and white scan but this is my family coat of arms as researched by a now long dead and very eccentric cousin of mine (actually of my grandfather's) who was a member of the College of Heralds (aka College of Arms).

 

[sknox]

Knox. I ain't got one, 'less it's one of a scowling Presbyterian.

But that's just one line. What about the Van Duesens? Or the Vincenti? Or the other family names going up my patrilineal or matrilineal? Which one of those is "mine"? And anyway, coats of arms are for aristocrats, and danged if they don't keep hanging around no matter how many of their heads we chopped off!

Not trying to harsh anybody's trip. Just being an American. Our coat of arms should be a great big Cadillac, diamond in the back, sunroof top.

 

[Ursa major]

Our coat of arms should be a great big Cadillac

Some of those danged aristocrats need caddies in order to play golf -- golf trollies and (particularly) carts being beneath them, and carrying their own clubs seen as the thin end of the wedge that leads to the guillotine -- so as long as you learn to be suitably obsequious, they'll be happy if you display that coat of arms (though only in the privacy of your own hovel)....

 

[Venusian Broon]

Knox. I ain't got one, 'less it's one of a scowling Presbyterian.

But that's just one line. What about the Van Duesens? Or the Vincenti? Or the other family names going up my patrilineal or matrilineal? Which one of those is "mine"? And anyway, coats of arms are for aristocrats, and danged if they don't keep hanging around no matter how many of their heads we chopped off!

Not trying to harsh anybody's trip. Just being an American. Our coat of arms should be a great big Cadillac, diamond in the back, sunroof top.

Of course you have, the generic Knox is a yellow bird on a red background. Just type in "coat of arms Knox" in a search engine and look for images. Sure it wasn't awarded to your specific family in your lifetime, but that's what you'd get for that generic name.

As for which is yours, well, if you don't like Knox change it to something else. Pretty sure the other names will come up with different coats of arms. Make up something no one else has ever had in history to not get a crest.

 

[Vertigo]

and anyway, coats of arms are for aristocrats,

Not quite true actually. My coat of arms is specifically for a freeman landowner not of noble birth. The original definition of a squire, a 'title' to which I am, apparently, entitled. But absolutely not aristocracy.

 

[nixie]

Sweeney, my dad's

 

[Venusian Broon]

Not quite true actually. My coat of arms is specifically for a freeman landowner not of noble birth. The original definition of a squire, a 'title' to which I am, apparently, entitled. But absolutely not aristocracy.

Plus coats of arms are given to all sorts of things nowadays, organisations etc. and it can be just a bit of fun.

Also I'm fascinated by the history and stories, the old ones generate. Even although I am unlikely to be connected to them

 

[nixie]

Elliott my mum's

 

[Venusian Broon]

Sweeney, my dad's
View attachment 52805

What's the animal in the green band???? Armadillo? Dinosaur?

I like the magic wand in your mums! Very Hogwarts

 

[Vertigo]

Elliott my mum's View attachment 52806

Do you know what the blue and white bar represents?

 

[nixie]

I really don't know, the animal associated with Sweeney is the boar, it's probably some past seer seen Wally in the future and added a large crocodile but didn't get the image right

 

[Venusian Broon]

I really don't know, the animal associated with Sweeney is the boar, it's probably some past seer seen Wally in the future and added a large crocodile but didn't get the image right

I'd go with Dinosaur. That really gives your family a very long heritage and history

 

[nixie]

Do you know what the blue and white bar represents?

I don't, know Elliott has three separate coats of Arms, English, Irish and Scottish, brother done some research on ours because he wanted the Elliott tartan for a wedding, turns out we were descended from the border reivers.

 

[Matteo]

However, I am somewhat sceptical about such things. Aren't crests awarded/made for specific families, rather than whole groups of people with the same surname...

This is what I always thought.

And having just looked up mine - and found twelve different designs - I think we're right.

 

[Vertigo]

Yes a coat of arms is strictly speaking only for an individual not even a family, I think, and they don't necessarily persist unchanged down through the generations. If that person married someone who also had a coat of arms then the two would be merged based on all sorts of arcane rules and the next generation would have a modified one. Or at least that's how I understood it. However these days I'm not sure that gets done much any longer.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Being a Scot of Irish descent, it left me both amused and bemused when I looked at my family (O'Brien) coat of arms.

O'Brien Coat of Arms, Family Crest - Free Image to View - O'Brien Name Origin History and Meaning of Symbols

O'Brien Coat of Arms, Family Crest - Free Image to View - O'Brien Name Origin History and Meaning of Symbols

www.irishsurnames.com

Family motto: The strongest hand uppermost

It seems that I can proudly wear three lions on my chest

Probably worth noting that the English three lions is derived from the Plategenets (french). Wether there's any relationship between them and the O'Briens is something I've yet to uncover.

Anyhoo. That's mine. What's yours?

They don’t even have an option of an Irish surname starting with Z. Pitiful!