Design Your Own Family Crest and Coat of Arms – with free printable!

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My boys and I were reading about Myles Standish, of Mayflower Pilgrim fame, and learned he had a family coat of arms. Wouldn't it be fun to create our own family coat of arms using a template? What could we learn about them and their uses? Off to the interwebs we went!

Coats of arms belong to an individual. It showed who was behind a shield in a battle or competition. It has one or more elements: a helm, a mantle or wreath, animals, banners, symbols, and a motto. The family crest is a specific part of the arms and is the three-dimensional object placed at the top of the helm.

How to use the family coat of arms template coloring book.

You can use our blank family crest template printable found below to make your own. There's also a family crest online generator found at MyTribe101.

What to put on your helm for your coat of arms? As you read about the elements we will ask you questions to add to your worksheet in the coloring book. Print it out first and then read along with us.

What is a family coat of arms and why is it significant?

These came about during the Medieval period. A ruling monarch would give a coat of arms to a man for service to the crown. The first born son would inherit it and add their own individual flare.

Coats of arms actually belong to a person. While members of a family can use similar elements. The coat of arms generally refers to the, cape, shield, crest and helmet.

A family crest only refers to the small image that lies on the helm (top of the helmet). The family crest is a simple symbol when the full coat of arms is too detailed.

What things are included in a family coat of arms?

A family coat of arms has many elements. These include the shape of the shield, the helm, the mantling, the wreath, symbols, and colors.

Is the shape of the shield significant?

The shape of the shield in the coat of arms comes from when it was first created. The tear-drop, or kite, shape dates as far back as the 12th century.

It wasn't until the 15th century that they became wider and longer due to improvements in warfare and uses. Those have places where a “mouth” was used to allow the lance to be for jousting tournaments.

Shapes of a coat of arms range from teardrops, a square Iberian that has a square top and rounded base, to the French's rectangle with a pointed bottom. Different countries also used different shapes. Family coat of arms in France have more scrolls, and loops.

As you make your own coat of arms decide what time period or geographical region your family came from, or you would have enjoyed the most.

What is the symbolic meaning of the helm on a family crest?

A helm, or helmet, is located at the top center of the shield. It can include a reference to military rank. If the helmet is facing forward, with an open visor, it symbolizes being a knight.

It could also reference a particular time period such as a wedding date. If the helmet is facing sideways, with a closed visor, that means you're a man of noble birth.

Would you have been in the military, ready to go out on the battlefield, or a man who went to the office to do battle? Both support their country, just in different ways.

Who gets a mantle on their coat of arms?

Only the king or his son, who is next in line, get a mantle. Sometimes, it has been given to nobles to recognize a particular occasion.

Because it makes the coat of arms really stand out knights would add leaves, or a wreath, to drape the sides of the shield. A wreath usually has six parts to look like a twisted rope.

What animals to choose?

Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! Which one to choose when designing your own coat of arms? These animals represented qualities of the person wearing the coat of arms. What about an axe, flower, or sun?

What each individual symbol signifies can be found in the coloring book.

You'll see animals like griffins, unicorns, tigers, and eagles on the coat of arms for kings and leaders. These animals signify braver, courage, valor, and leadership decisiveness.

Traits such as ambition, industriousness, eagerness, and cleverness were shown by using a snake, bee, falcon, hawk, or fox. Someone who was protective, a defender of the treasure, or on constant vigilance would choose a bear, dragon, or wolf.

If you were just a young knight starting out you would choose an animal that signified you were ready to serve, faithful, dependable, loyal and would persevere. These include a horse, raven, dog, or even a camel.

If your job was to be the vicar, or religious leader, you choose the traditional dove. Even animals such as a stag, elk, or deer signified a time of peace and tranquility.

What symbols to choose?

There were so many different ones that were used. The FleurdeLis site has a list of most symbols that were used along with pictures. We are going to stick to ones that were widely used.

You'll see many coat of arms with at least one cross, to signify their faith in god. A moon or crescent signifies they did battle in the Crusades.

Because knights were soldiers, symbols showing decisiveness (lightning), dutifulness (axe), or swords were used. If you were a king or of royal blood there would be a crown to show your authority.

Symbols were also taken from nature. Things like an acorn (the symbol of plenty), horns and antlers (fortitude), flowers and leaves (beauty and nature), along with a heart (sincerity) showed their interest in their land and how it supported them, too.

What banners to choose?

There are usually two banners on a coat of arms. The one across the top of the shield lists the family motto. We'll discuss what a motto is in a minute. The banner below the shield will display the family name. These can be simple swooshes or extremely extravagant with lots of curls and twists.

What motto to choose?

A family motto is a creed you all live your life by. It speaks loftily of your virtues, your courage in battle, loyalty to the king, as well as strength and faith. They are written in Latin or old French because only the educated knew the language.

Sentiments such as “Lay restraint on thy tongue or thy tongue will lay it on thee” were written out in calligraphy and put on the banner above the coat of arms. Think about what words speak about your own character. Then go to Google translate and change it into Latin. Just for fun I got it started for you.

If you want to see what your new motto would look like in calligraphy FontMeme lets you put in your text, then select a cursive font, and hit the generate button. Voila!

If you use the “Outline A” font you can tape a sheet of paper over the computer monitor and trace your motto. Then cut it out and place over your newly designed by you coat of arms.

What do the colors of a family coat of arms signify?

Colors have tinctures such as Gules (red), Azure (blue), and Argent (white or silver. The artist drawing the coat of arms would decide which shades of those colors would look best.

Still have questions about a family crest and coat of arms?

Why are men only shown with a coat of arms?

A lady never fought in battle so would use her father's coat of arms on a diamond-shape called a lozenge. This could be used as a pendant or on stationery.

After marriage her father's coat of arms would be incorporated into a conjugal coat of arms. That's why you'll see ones that have all kinds of elements on it. These elements would be passed down to their children. It's basically a show of one's lineage.

Does your family already have a coat of arms?

The United Kingdom still keeps track of all the family crests and coats of arms as far back as the 12th century. Unless your family is from there you'll have to try searching online. 4crests.com has a search function where you type in your last name and they show you what they have.

You could go to Google and type in your last name and add “family coat of arms”. For instance, I would type in “Masek coat of arms”. My last name before I got married was Ryan, which is Irish. Since Ireland is part of the UK I know that what comes up in search is the real deal.

There are several companies that will sell you what their research found is your family crest. If you like or agree with them they also sell all kinds of products with it from mugs to T-shirts.

A few examples of coat of arms.

Conclusion

After reading all about family crests and coat of arms do you think you're ready to make your very own? I tried to include a lot of elements for you to play with. Print these out, cut them out, then paste them on one of the shields included. Have fun with it!