The Wolf Coat of Arms: Meaning and Design

What a wolf means in heraldry

Valor, perseverance and loyalty. Later heraldic writers said the wolf stood for valor guarded by wisdom, and for a reward earned through a long struggle. Today most people choose a wolf for its loyalty to the pack: a family, a team or a group of friends who look after each other.

Wolves were especially popular in German, Spanish and Scandinavian heraldry, and in English arms they often appear as a head on its own.

Why so many wolf crests show only the head

A head is bold and easy to read from a distance, so heralds often used one in place of the whole animal. There are two ways to cut it:

• Erased: torn off at the neck, leaving a jagged edge. This is the wolf's head drawn in Crest Studio.
• Couped: cut off with a clean, straight line.

Whole wolves appear too: rampant (rearing), passant (walking) and salient (leaping).

Wolves and family names

Heralds loved a pun. Arms that play on the owner's name are called canting arms, and wolves turn up in many of them: Spanish families named López (from the Latin lupus, wolf) often bear wolves, as do English families named Wolfe and Lovett (from the Old French louvet, a young wolf). The Bavarian city of Passau has shown a red wolf on silver for centuries.

If your name has a wolf hidden in it, a wolf crest is a nod to a very old heraldic joke. If it does not, the wolf still works as a symbol of the people you call your pack.

Designing your wolf crest

Silver on dark colors

A silver wolf on black, blue or green looks the most like a real wolf and reads well at any size. Gold on red is warmer and more royal.

For clans, guilds and teams

A wolf's head is one of the best emblems for a gaming clan or sports team because it stays recognizable as a small icon. See clan and guild logos, and the Crest Logo Kit for server icons and banners.

Mottos for a wolf

Try Fidelis (faithful), Nunquam Retrorsum (never backward) or plain English such as "The Pack Endures". More in the Latin motto generator.

Design a wolf crest

More free heraldry tools