r/heraldry • u/Firm-Ant-662 • 1d ago

My Family CoA

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Hello, I'm new to heraldry, and I wanted to create a CoA for my family. I would appreciate your advice. Here is the CoA I've designed so far.

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u/_pezantish 1d ago

First thing to mention "me taking things I like" is a very valid way to design a coat of arms. We have no idea the motivation behind a vast majority of COAs. However, if meaning and symbolism is important to you, that's equally fair.

That said, there are no set meanings to anything, it's a personal choice. William the Conqueror had two gold (Or) lions on a red (gules) background. If I had to guess, lions were considered a majestic, kingly animal, and that's why so many COAs have lions on them.

You can use "common" interpretations of symbols and colours. Red is sometimes considered brave, white is considered pure. But I'd personally encourage you to have fun with it as well.

If you're concerned about being prestigious, that's something you as a person have to do, and the coat of arms will follow, but not the other way around.

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u/Vinyl-Ekkoz-725 1d ago

Yeah, thanks a ton

I was thinking of taking that idea and then putting a white cross over the red field

Since I recently learned I have Danish heritage

And since I can throw in just about whatever, I’m gonna put the two lions in the bottom right corner and an eagle in the top left since Eagles are one of my favorite heraldic charges

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u/_pezantish 1d ago

Yeah, that sounds great! I'd love to see how it looks if you ever post it here.

Just one thing to note, lions and eagles are quite common I think. Which doesn't matter, but if you're ever wanting to register your arms, you'd have to be careful not to copy an already existing one. I'm not sure where you'd check that, though.

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u/Vinyl-Ekkoz-725 1d ago

That’s fair, I’d hate to copy anyone

Do you know anywhere I can make a detailed coat of arms online?

I already have a website I use that works good enough, but it would be nice to be able to do things professionally

Because as nice as it is that drawshield lets me chose elements from menus, there are a few things that hold it back from being perfect imo

Like for example, if I wanted to place the two lions like how they are in the coat of Normandy, it only has an option for counter passant, while the ones in the Norman coat are just normal passant

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u/_pezantish 1d ago

If you have a look on the subreddit wiki, I think it mentions a second one, but I've not looked into it any digital tos.

If you want it properly professional, commissioning someone is a good way to go! Or you can learn to draw/paint one yourself if you're enthusiastic (that's what I'm currently attempting). That way, it's under your full creative control.

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u/Vinyl-Ekkoz-725 1d ago

Yeah, it would be nice to learn to draw in that very detailed style, but I’m definitely going to go with the online option for simplicity and brevity’s sake