Coat of arms I designed for a family from Russia, based on an old plate.
If you are looking for a similar crest for you, your family or your company, please click on the “Order” link in the menu. You can send me an email using the contact form there, describing what coat of arms would you like me design for you. Also, you can click on “How Does It Work” link in the same menu to read more about symbolic elements used in heraldry*. Every element in the coat of arms should have its meaning. For example “a spade” a tool of agriculture; symbol of honest labour. “Jasmine”: signifies hope, joy and a demonstration of attachment.
Please note, that there is no such thing as a ‘coat of arms for a surname’. Many people of the same surname will often be entitled to completely different coats of arms. Coats of arms belong to individuals.
* Heraldry, the science and the art that deal with the use, display, and regulation of hereditary symbols employed to distinguish individuals, armies, institutions, and corporations. Those symbols, which originated as identification devices on flags and shields, are called armorial bearings. Strictly defined, heraldry denotes that which pertains to the office and duty of a herald; that part of his work dealing with armorial bearings is properly termed armory. But in general usage heraldry has come to mean the same as armory. The initial meaning of the term herald is disputed, but the preferred derivation is from the Anglo-Saxon here (“army”) and wald (“strength” or “sway”).
In the second half of the 12th century the men who supervised festivities and delivered invitations to guests were often the same minstrels who, after tournaments and battles, extolled the virtues and deeds of the victors. Heralds can be identified in the descriptions of tournaments from about 1170. The duties of minstrels and messengers appear then to have merged, and, as the minstrels recounted the deeds and virtues of their masters and their masters’ ancestors, their interest in genealogy developed. That new skill was related to their tournament duties, which included the necessity to recognize the banners and shields of all those invited to attend. As heraldry developed its elaborate technical language and as armorial display expanded in subsequent centuries, so the importance and consequent status of heralds grew.