How to Create Your Own Coat of Arms

Very often people who are interested in genealogy will do intense searches to fill in their family tree. Many of them are interested in creating a Coat of Arms.

Armorials have been granted since the time of William I (The Conquerer). A Coat of Arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings, or often just arms for short, was a symbol used to identify the knights in battle by family and rank, because they weren't able to see the knight's face under the suit of armor.[1] The formal description of an armorial was known as an emblazon. A green lion staining on its hind legs on a yellow, or gold shield, or chief, is described as "Chief vert, a lion rampant or."

1. To create your own coat of arms you should first choose what is commonly known as a shield, or scutchen.
   
   
2. Choose your "decorations." There are several ways to accent the shield. Each has a purpose, and in formal armorials there are rules as to which parts are assembled with which other parts and colors.[2]
   
   
   • Choose your color for the shield. In some cases, depending on how you want to display your shield, you may have colors for different areas.
     
     
   • Choose your designs for shield. The designs on the shield are known as charges. You can use animals, flowers, stars, crescent moons, sunbursts, or mythological creatures.
     
     
   • Choose the colors that you want for your charges. Normally, metals are yellow is used for gold and white is used for silver and colors are bright red (gules), royal or sky blue (azure), emerald green (vert), royal purple (purpure), and black (sable). When you choose your colors, metals go on colors or colors go on metals, but don't put colors on colors or metals on metals.
     
     
   • Decide how you want your charges to appear. If they are animals or creatures, they you want to make them appear as they would naturally (proper), standing on their hind legs (rampant), standing on hind legs face turned toward you (rampant guardant), walking (passant), lying down (couchant), or sitting (sejant).
     
     
3. Design the rest of your coat of arms by choosing from the different parts and accessories that you can include.[3]
   
   
   • Decide on what you want on the top of the shield. Usually, there is a coronet, which is similar to the pillow that the king's helmet sits on. The coronet rests on the shield. If, for example, the shield colors are red and black, the coronet may be red and black vertical stripes.
     
     
   • Pick a helmet. The helmet sits on the coronet. This can be of almost any style. Depending on the style of helmet, there may be a crest atop the helmet. Many times this crest may include something like a rooster's or a stag's head. It varied from family to family, and whether the family was of higher peerage. 
     
     
   • Decide what kind of mantling that you want. Mantling is the leaves that usually attach to the top of the helmet or the bottom of the crest.
     
     
   • Based on the charges that you have on the shield, choose your supporters. Supporters can be animals, birds, or persons that appear to be supporting or holding up the shield.
     
     
   • Decide if you want to include a compartment for under the shield. The compartment is simple leaves or branches that take up the space between the shield and the banner below. 
     
     
   • Design your banner. It's a pretty simple ribbon that holds your motto.
     
     
4. Finished.
   
   

• The Great Seal of the United States is a registered Achievement.
• How elaborate the armorial mantles and crests often was dictated by the level of peerage of the family. Peerage is whether the family owning the armorial was a Duke or an Earl.
• Not all coats of arms contain all of the parts listed above. In fact, flags often only have the shield unless the coat of arms belongs to a king or prince.

• In order to avoid copyright violations, it is helpful to do a search. Most western coats of arms are designed and registered at College of Arms in London.[4]