Design a Welsh Family Crest

First, the honest part

You will find sites selling "the Jones coat of arms" or "the Davies family crest" as if everyone with the name shares one design. Heraldry does not work that way, in Wales or anywhere else in Britain. A coat of arms belongs to one person and passes to their descendants. Wales comes under the College of Arms in London, which also has an honorary officer for Wales, the Wales Herald Extraordinary, revived in 1963.

Welsh heraldry has a twist of its own. From the late Middle Ages, Welsh genealogists gave coats of arms to the early kings, princes and founders of family lines, often long after those people had died and before heraldry even existed. The best known are the arms of the Fifteen Noble Tribes of North Wales, first listed in the 1490s. Many gentry families who traced their descent from one of those founders then used the founder's arms. So a design listed under a Welsh name may be the arms of one ancient lineage, with no link to your own family.

That is why the honest and more personal choice is to design your own crest: one that describes your family as it is now, built from symbols that mean something to you.

Why so many Welsh families share a surname

For centuries the Welsh did not use fixed surnames. A man was known as the son of his father: ap or ab means "son of" and ferch means "daughter of". When fixed surnames took hold, from the 15th century among the gentry and much later among ordinary families, many of them grew out of those patronymics:

• Powell from ap Hywel, son of Hywel
• Price from ap Rhys, son of Rhys
• Pugh from ap Hugh, son of Hugh
• Bowen from ab Owen, son of Owen

Others came straight from a father's first name, which is why Jones (from John), Davies (from David), Williams, Evans and Thomas are so common. In some rural areas the old patronymic custom lasted until the early 1800s. With so few names spread across so many unrelated families, a single "surname crest" makes even less sense in Wales than elsewhere. Your own design does.

Welsh symbols for your crest

• Red dragon: Y Ddraig Goch, the dragon on the flag of Wales, officially recognized in 1959. In heraldry a dragon stands for a valiant defender. See the dragon coat of arms guide for its meaning and history.
• Leek: the older national emblem. Legend says Saint David told Welsh soldiers to wear leeks on their helmets in a battle against the Saxons in the sixth century. In Shakespeare's Henry V, the king wears a leek and tells the Welsh captain Fluellen, "for I am Welsh, you know, good countryman."
• Daffodil: a newer emblem that grew popular in the 19th century and was championed by the Welsh-born prime minister David Lloyd George. One Welsh name for it is Cenhinen Bedr, "Peter's leek".
• Castles and mountains: Wales is famous for both. A tower suits a family that sees home as a stronghold, and a mountain suits one that is steady and hard to move.
• Books and harps: a nod to the bards and to the poetry and music of the eisteddfod. Crest Studio has a book emblem; a harp is not in the Studio yet.

Colors with a Welsh feel

The flag puts a red dragon on white and green, but a flag is not a coat of arms, and red directly on green breaks heraldry's rule of tincture: a color should sit on a metal (gold or silver), not on another color. On a shield, a red dragon on a silver field keeps the flag's spirit and reads clearly from across a room. Green with a gold or silver emblem also feels Welsh, and green (Vert) stands for hope and joy. The heraldry meanings guide explains every color.

Mottos

The Welsh Cymru am Byth (Wales forever) is the obvious favorite. You can also write your own line in Welsh or English, or pick a Latin one from the Latin motto generator. Mottos in the Studio can be up to 48 characters.

Making it a gift

Saint David's Day, March 1, is a natural moment for a Welsh crest, and so is a wedding, a new home or a family reunion. The $9 set includes a certificate of arms that explains every symbol; see family crest gifts. Exploring other roots too? Try the Irish and Scottish crest guides.

Design a Welsh crest

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