Heraldry in the United States

Centuries ago, wealthy knights would paint designs on their shields in order to identify themselves in tournament and on the battlefield. Sometimes these knights bequeathed their shield designs down to their sons and grandsons to use. As more and more knights and nobles acquired personalized shield designs, a system was required to document which men were legally entitled to use which designs. The study and profession of creating, documenting, and granting these designs to individuals, or various other entities is called heraldry. Even after shields stopped being used in warfare, the practice of heraldry has endured as European families have continued decorating their homes with their ancestor’s shield designs.

The key product of heraldry today is called the coat of arms. The coat of arms consists of a shield and a crest. The crest refers to a unique decorative device atop a knight’s helmet. Many people today make the mistake of referring to the whole coat of arms as simply the “crest”. This is not correct. In addition to the shield and crest, the coat of arms is typically decorated with a helmet that rests above the shield. On the helmet is a colored torse from which colorful, elaborate mantling drapes and flows around the shield. On top of the torse is the crest. Coats of arms may also have a motto scrolled out below the shield. Another misconception on coats of arms is that they are, by nature, a family symbol. In fact, coats of arms are granted to individuals called armigers. The arms can be assumed and displayed by sons, daughters, and direct descendents of armigers; but usually not by siblings, uncles, or distant relatives.

Since heraldry originated from European society, European governments have since codified the guidelines regulating the practice of heraldry. Many European nations have official government institutions that regulate the assumption of arms and grant arms to individual people or corporate entities. By contrast, the United States government does not have any official governing body that grants coats of arms or regulates the usage of arms.--Or does it? If we search deep in the bureaucracy of the Department of Defense, we will find a headquarters building in Fort Belvoir where a dozen or so federal employees occupy a group of offices and cubicles. This small contingent of historians and software engineers and artists comprises the US Army Institute of Heraldry. Its mission (paraphrased) is to grant coats of arms, official seals, insignias, and other heraldic devices to all offices, units, agencies, and branches of the US government. Although individual people are never granted arms by the institute, the arms do belong to the various government agencies and units and are assumed by the leaders of these agencies while holding office. The arms granted by the US Army Institute of Heraldry take into account all European heraldic traditions and are the only coats of arms formally recognized by the US government. One might say that the US government agencies and units themselves are their own aristocracy.

Nevertheless, Americans in the US do sometimes wish to display their own official coats of arms to start or to carry on family tradition. For these Americans, there are a few avenues available. First, although there are no official governing bodies on the granting of arms in the US, there are several non-profit, non-government societies devoted to celebrating and preserving the traditions of heraldry. These societies are great resources of information on what heraldry is all about and how the traditions are preserved. Their primary purpose is to maintain a registration of citizens who do have a legitimate claim to a particular coat of arms granted to an ancestor. If an American can prove that an ancestor was granted a coat of arms from an official governing body, and that he or she is descended from that person, the societies will register his or her arms and document them as an armiger. That person can proudly display their arms at home or abroad without guilt. A secondary function of these societies is to give those Americans who are not descended from armigers an informed understanding of heraldry and a respect for its rules and institutions. For a fee that is typically between $100 and $400, the societies’ professionals will help anyone design their own coat of arms for their own personal use. The benefit of this is that the arms they design will have the traditional rules taken into account while not plagiarizing any officially-granted arms that currently exist. Although the institute will then register your new arms, the arms are not necessarily recognized by armigers and will certainly not be officially recognized by any European nations. The purpose of these assumed arms is merely for individual use for someone and their family to keep as a fascinating keepsake and decorative record of family history. It is important to note that the arms that are designed by these societies and registered under your name are not officially being granted to you. The registration serves merely as a record that you used the arms before anyone else. The societies will not assist you in locating genealogical records or in locating an armiger in your ancestry.

Those Americans who seriously want to receive their own official coat of arms, must first find the nation from which their surname originated. Descendents from Ireland with an Irish last name can petition the Republic of Ireland’s Chief Herald to seek a grant of arms. Englishmen, South Africans, Australians, etc. will petition the English College of Arms, and so on. Since so many nations around the world still include the English Monarchy as their chief of state, many people all over the world are eligible. Colin Powell was eligible to receive a grant of arms from the College because his parents were from Jamaica, a British territory. This may sound easy, there is a speedbump. In Europe, the bearing of arms is an aristocratic practice traditionally reserved for gentlemen. In our United States, we think of a gentleman as nothing more than someone who displays courteous and polite manners. In Europe, the gentry are a social class that are distinct from others through their having acquired enough wealth to not have to work for a living. What does this mean to you? First, you will have to subjectively prove that you are of proper character and means. Federal commissions, university degrees, large charitable donations, and recognized achievements are the simplest cards to play to get hustled into the door quickly. Second, you will have to fulfill the far more objective requirement of paying a fee of around $10,000 to be considered. Although the citizens of most of Europe and Britain are equals in practice, The UK and other European societies are still aristocracies. Since our society in the US is based on social equality, we have no such baggage to overcome. Our heraldic societies will help anyone create unofficial arms for themselves for a small administrative fee. This is probably the better option since the US government does not necessarily recognize the bearing of heraldic arms by individuals anyway.

I should feel obligated to take the time to touch on the biggest heraldic no-no of all. If you choose to create your own coat of arms and display it on your wall, that’s fine. But the last thing you should want to do is to falsely claim someone else’s coat of arms as your own. I can go online right now and find any of the “Smith” or the “Rogers” coats of arms. The problem with that is that just because one might share the same last name of someone who was granted those arms centuries ago, does not mean that the person is entitled to those arms today. Chances are, most people are descended from a different Smith or Rogers. There must have been scores of grants of arms to various Smiths and Rogers’ over the centuries. The bottom line is if you believe you are descended from an armiger, you have to prove it through your genealogical records. Remember that coats of arms do not belong to a name. They belong to an individual. An individual may bequeath their arms to their direct ancestors; but heraldry is not the crazy free-for-all that American kiosks and web sites profess it to be.

Heraldry is all about rules and tradition. It is best to let experts help you design a coat of arms if you want to use one in your family tree or other heirlooms. You must understand the language of heraldry. Let’s assume you’ve been working with an expert, paid your fee, and have completed your design. You think you are done. But what you will actually be getting is not be an image, but a one or two-sentence description, partially written in Latin. You will have no idea what it means. This description is called a blazon of arms and is the most important part of being an armiger. Based on your blazon, professional artists will be able to draw out their own interpretation of what your coat of arms should look like. Colors and various parts of the shield are always described in Latin. Symbols or other shield items are usually English or old English. Patterns or other specific symbols can be described on a case-by-case basis. Your blazon will have two parts described: a crest and a shield. The shield is the piece to which we are all most accustomed. The crest refers to the decorative crest on top of a knight’s helmet. Everything else is mere decoration, though tradition dictates the proper use of these decorations. One should be selective in choosing images (called "charges") displayed on a shield. One of the greatly-perpetuated myths of heraldry is that the images, or charges, are always symbolic of something. In most grants of arms, the charges are literal and not symbolic of concepts like "courage" or "devotion". Although a bald eagle does symbolize the United States, don’t assume a bald eagle can symbolize an abstract noun like “unity” or “strength”. Abstract symbolism is almost never used in traditional heraldry, even though some information sources indicate that they do. If an armiger has a deer or a boar on his shield, it probably means he likes hunting deer or boar. The display of bees may give the impression that one is descended from either the Bonaparte family or the Merovingian Dynasty of France. A red rose could imply you are a member of the royal House of Lancaster. Dividing your shield into halves or quarters is never done unless you are descended from two armigers and you want to combine their designs. You should never use crowns, a fleur-de-lis, or ermine furs on your shield. The Maltese cross or other symbols of knightly orders cannot be assumed by anyone not associated with those orders. There are only five regular colors and two metal colors (gold and silver). Metals can never touch metals and standard colors cannot touch standard colors. There are a lot of rules if you choose to play this heraldry game and it is always best to rely on experts for help.

Just a few of the national non-profit heraldic societies in the US are the American College of Heraldry, the American Heraldry Society, and the United States Heraldic Registry. Having a coat of arms that you use in family documents can give you a rich sense of pride that you can bestow to your children and grandchildren. Your descendents many generations from now may be interested to maintain such a mysterious and exciting part of their lineage.