Family crest
There is no such thing as a family crest or a coat of arms for a surname. Arms are granted to one person and pass to that person’s descendants; the crest is only the part of the arms that sits on top of the helmet.
Meaning
The heraldic authorities say the same thing plainly. “There is no such thing as a family crest, and there never was,” the Heraldry Society writes. The College of Arms says there is no such thing as a coat of arms for a surname: arms are granted or confirmed to one person and passed to their descendants in the legitimate male line, so many people of one surname have entirely different arms, and many have none. In Scotland, the Court of the Lord Lyon says, a personal coat of arms can be borne by only one person at a time. The word crest is also misused: the crest is only the three-dimensional figure set on top of the helmet, one part of the full arms.
Origin and history
The misuse is old. In 1909 Fox-Davies complained of “the habit of the uneducated” in calling anything stamped on notepaper “a crest”. The Royal Family’s own account of the royal arms makes the same correction: a coat of arms should not be called a crest.
What “crest” means
The crest stands on the helm above the shield, on its wreath, as in the drawing here, a demi-lion (the upper half of a lion). The College of Arms and the Court of the Lord Lyon both define it as the three-dimensional object on top of the helm. The Heraldry Society adds that in the United Kingdom crests are granted only to men, while in Canada men and women may be granted one. The rest of a coat of arms is on the Coat of arms page.
Arms sold by surname
Arms sold with a surname are, the Court of the Lord Lyon says, mostly inauthentic: often they are the arms of a clan chief, which only the chief may use. It compares buying one to having your photograph taken in front of a castle and giving the impression that the castle is yours. The Heraldry Society calls the trade “bucket shop heraldry” and treats it as a form of fraud. Using arms that are not recorded in the Public Register is a criminal offence in Scotland, according to the Court of the Lord Lyon.
Clans
A Scottish clan cannot have a coat of arms either. The chief has personal arms; a clan member may wear a badge made of the chief’s crest inside a belt and buckle that bears the chief’s motto.
Who grants arms
Only the sovereign can grant arms, the Heraldry Society explains, and the power is delegated to the Earl Marshal for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Lord Lyon for Scotland and the Governor General for Canada, whose Canadian Heraldic Authority was created in 1988. Anyone living or owning a house or land in Scotland may apply to the Lord Lyon. The College of Arms grants honorary arms to Americans who can show descent from a subject of the British Crown. The heraldic authorities can say whether an ancestor was granted arms.
Read next
- Next in HeraldryTinctures (heraldic colours)The colours of heraldry: two metals, or (gold) and argent (silver), five colours, azure (blue), gules (red), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple), and furs such as ermine and vair. The rule of tincture forbids metal on metal and colour on colour.
- The same shape in Diwali symbolsAkash deep (Diwali lantern)A lantern hung high outside the house through the Diwali season. Akash kandil is its Marathi name; the older Sanskrit word, ākāśadīpa, is a lamp raised on a pole at Diwali in honour of Lakshmi or Vishnu.
See also
Coat of arms, Marks of cadency, Ordinaries, Crosses in heraldry, Lion rampant, Eagle displayed.
Sources
- FAQs: heraldry, Resources (Internet Archive copy, 17 May 2026), College of Arms, Q. Do coats of arms belong to surnames? Q. What is a crest? Q. I am American, can I have a coat of arms?
- FAQs, Sistema Plastics, FAQs
- The Court of the Lord Lyon: Scotland’s heraldic authority, Home page, Court of the Lord Lyon, home page
- Frequently Asked Questions, Carlisle Transportation Products (The Carlstar Group), Frequently Asked Questions
- A Complete Guide to Heraldry, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, 1909 (Project Gutenberg ebook 41617), T. C. & E. C. Jack, via Project Gutenberg, Chapter V, The Component Parts of an Achievement, p. 59
- Canadian Heraldic Authority, Heraldry, The Governor General of Canada, page text
- Coats of Arms, Royal Residences, Art and History (Internet Archive copy, 4 October 2026), The Royal Family (royal.uk), article text
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from lines.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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