To verify a coat of arms, find its written description (the blazon) and trace it to an official record: a grant or registration by a heraldic authority such as the College of Arms in London or the Court of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh. Printed armorials like Burke’s General Armory can show that a design was recorded for a particular family, but not that it belongs to you. Genuine arms always lead back to a named person, a date and an authority; a design sold simply “for your surname” does not.
First, decide what “authentic” means
People use the word in three different senses, and it helps to keep them apart:
- Is the design real? Was it ever granted or recorded, or was it invented?
- Whose was it? Which person or family, in which place, at what date?
- Is it yours? Was it granted to you, or can you prove descent from the person it was granted to?
Most designs sold for a surname pass the first test at best. They fail the third, because, as the College of Arms states, “There is no such thing as a ‘coat of arms for a surname’.” (Our article on what a family coat of arms really is explains why.)
Step 1: Get the blazon and a source
Pictures of the same arms can look quite different. The College of Arms explains that what governs a coat of arms is its written blazon, not any particular painting, so start by finding the words. If you are unsure how to read them, see how to read a coat of arms.
Then ask of any design you are shown: granted to whom, by whom, and when? Recorded in which register or book, and on which page? A genuine historical record can answer those questions. “Ancient family arms” with no name, date or reference cannot.
Step 2: Check the official registers
College of Arms (London)
The heralds of England were incorporated by royal charter in 1484 and work under a charter of 1555. Their authority covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as many other countries of which the King is head of state, and their records include registers of grants of arms, the records of the heralds’ visitations of English and Welsh counties in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and pedigree registers. Searches are made by the heralds themselves: the officer in waiting can arrange a fee-based search for arms recorded for families of your name, and the College also offers a paid service to identify arms from a photograph or the object itself.
Court of the Lord Lyon (Edinburgh)
Scotland’s Public Register of All Arms and Bearings has been kept since an Act of 1672. You can search it at the Lyon Office by appointment, or by writing to the Lyon Clerk, for a fee per entry inspected. The Court says the index and entries from 1672 to about a century ago can also be viewed on Scotland’s official online records service, where searching the index is free and viewing each image carries a fee. Registered arms are protected by Scots law, and misuse can be prosecuted.
Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland (Dublin)
Ireland’s heraldic records go back to the office of Ulster King of Arms, created in 1552. Since 1943 the Chief Herald has been part of the National Library of Ireland. The Office maintains the Register of Arms, and many of the historic Genealogical Office manuscripts have been digitized and can be found through the library. Note that, at the time of writing, the Office is not accepting new applications for grants or confirmations of arms.
Canadian Heraldic Authority
Arms granted in Canada since the Authority was created on June 4, 1988 are entered in the Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada, which can be searched online.
The United States
There is no American heraldic authority and no official register of personal arms, so American usage cannot be checked this way. That is where the printed armorials come in.
Step 3: Check the classic armorials
Armorials are reference books that list arms, usually by surname. They are invaluable for answering “whose was it?”, but none of them can tell you whether a design is yours.
| Book | Date | What it covers | What to keep in mind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burke, The General Armory | 1884 edition | Some 60,000 coats of arms of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales | Compiled from visitations, county histories and earlier writers; one surname often has several unrelated entries |
| Fairbairn’s Book of Crests | First published 1859; 4th edition 1905 | Crests and mottoes of British and Irish families | Its publishers gave “no guarantee of the official accuracy on the point of rightful inheritance” |
| Rietstap, Armorial Général | 1861; revised and enlarged 2nd edition from 1884 | Noble and patrician families across Europe, in French | Descriptions only; later illustrated by Victor and Henri Rolland |
| Siebmacher’s Wappenbuch | From 1605; the “New Siebmacher” from 1854 | Arms of the German-speaking lands and beyond, in more than a hundred parts | Arranged largely by region and by class, such as nobility, towns and bishoprics |
| Bolton’s American Armory | 1927 | Arms in use within the present United States, from tombstones, portraits, silver, bookplates and seals | A record of use, not of right: readers interested in “authentic” arms, Bolton wrote, “must look elsewhere” |
A finding in an armorial is a valuable historical clue. Burke, for example, gives seven entries for the name Washington, with five different designs, some tied to a particular family or county and others listed with no detail at all. Just remember that the books record what was borne or claimed, not who is entitled today. Fox-Davies warned in 1909 that even old examples of arms may be the work of the uninformed: “There were ‘heraldic stationers’ before the present day.”
Step 4: Connect the arms to your own family
This is the hard part, and the only one that can make arms yours. The College of Arms explains that to establish a right to arms by inheritance, “it is necessary to prove a descent from an ancestor who is already recorded as entitled to arms in the registers of the College of Arms.” If no known ancestor appears, the next stage is ordinary genealogical research to extend your pedigree and look for a link. In Scotland, the Lyon Court requires legal proof, usually birth and marriage certificates, for every statement in a petition.
A matching surname is not proof of descent. Names were spelled in many ways, and unrelated families often shared the same one. Our guides on tracing your surname’s origin and on whether names were changed at Ellis Island can help you work back carefully.
Warning signs of “bucket shop” heraldry
Heraldry enthusiasts use the term “bucket shop” for businesses that sell a coat of arms for any surname. The Court of the Lord Lyon’s verdict on such purchases is memorable: “What you have bought is simply a souvenir and has no authenticity. It is akin to having your photograph taken in front of a castle and giving the impression that the castle belongs to you.” Be cautious if you see:
- A coat of arms for every surname you type in, one design per name.
- No named original bearer, no date, no place and no reference to a register or book.
- A “clan coat of arms”. Lyon says plainly that “a clan cannot have a coat of arms”; what is shown is usually the chief’s personal arms.
- A ready-made “meaning” for every symbol and color. See our guide to heraldry symbols and their meanings for why these are mostly later inventions.
- A “certificate”. Only a heraldic authority’s own grant or register entry shows a right to arms.
A cautionary tale
Mistakes spread when arms are copied from books without checking. Fox-Davies recounts that the arms of Ashley, “Argent, three bulls passant sable, armed and unguled or”, were for many years wrongly described as the arms of Cooper, because the Earl of Shaftesbury’s surname is Ashley-Cooper. As a result, he writes, they were “jumped” by many people named Cooper. The real Cooper arms in the Earl’s shield are quite different: “Gules, a bend engrailed between six lions rampant or.”
What a genuine grant looks like
- England: The College of Arms grants arms by letters patent. The arms are painted on vellum by a College artist, the text is written out by a scrivener, and the document is signed and sealed by the Kings of Arms. A copy is painted and written into the College’s official registers.
- Scotland: Letters patent on vellum show the arms in full color, are sealed with the seal of the Lord Lyon and signed by the Lord Lyon, and are recorded in the Public Register. Lyon calls the document the grantee’s “title deed to the Arms”. The process generally takes 30 to 36 months.
- Canada: The grant document is sealed and signed by the Chief Herald of Canada and other officers, and the emblems are added to the online Public Register within about six to twelve months.
Every genuine grant names its recipient, carries a date and the authority of the officers who made it, and is entered in a register that can be checked. If a document lacks those things, it is not a grant.
If the arms turn out not to be yours
That does not make them worthless. Arms recorded for a family of your name are part of your surname’s history, worth knowing and worth keeping, as long as they are labeled honestly. And if you would like arms of your own, see can anyone have a coat of arms?
See the arms recorded for your surname →
Sources
- College of Arms, “Proving a right to arms”, “Granting of Arms” and “Identifying a Coat of Arms or Crest”. https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/services/proving-a-right-to-arms; https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/services/granting-arms; https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/services/identifying-a-coat-of-arms-or-crest
- College of Arms, “History” and “Records and Collections”. https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/about-us/history; https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/about-us/records-and-collections
- Court of the Lord Lyon, “Frequently Asked Questions”. https://www.courtofthelordlyon.scot/faqs.htm
- Court of the Lord Lyon, “Coats of Arms” (petitions and letters patent) and “Searching the Public Register”. https://www.courtofthelordlyon.scot/coats%20of%20arms.htm; https://www.courtofthelordlyon.scot/consulting%20the%20register.htm
- National Library of Ireland, “Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland”. https://www.nli.ie/office-chief-herald
- Canadian Heraldic Authority, “Grant of arms, flags and badges” and “Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada”. https://www.gg.ca/en/heraldry/grant-of-arms-flags-and-badges; https://www.gg.ca/en/heraldry/public-register
- Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (London, 1884). Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/generalarmoryofe00burk
- Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, 4th edition (London, 1905). Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/fairbairnsbookof01fair
- J. B. Rietstap, Armorial Général, 2nd edition (Gouda, 1884), vol. 1, Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/armorialgnra01rietuoft; and the CERL index to Siebmacher’s Wappenbücher: https://data.cerl.org/siebmacher/
- Charles Knowles Bolton, Bolton’s American Armory (Boston, 1927), Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/boltonsamericana0000char; and Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909), Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41617
Frequently asked questions
How can I tell if a coat of arms is real?
Ask three questions: is the design recorded in an official register or a reputable armorial, to whom was it granted or recorded, and can you prove descent from that person? Genuine arms always lead back to a named person, a date and an authority. A design offered simply for your surname, with no source, fails the test.
Is Burke’s General Armory proof that a coat of arms belongs to my family?
No. Burke’s 1884 edition describes some 60,000 coats of arms gathered from heralds’ visitations, county histories and earlier writers, arranged by surname. It shows that a design was recorded for a particular family of a name, often with several different entries for the same name, but it cannot show that you descend from that family.
Can the College of Arms check a coat of arms for me?
Yes. Its officers can try to identify arms from a photograph or the object itself, and can search the official records for arms recorded for families of your name. These are paid services; contact the officer in waiting at the College for a quote.
How do I search the Scottish register of arms?
The Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, kept since 1672, can be searched at the Lyon Office by appointment or by request to the Lyon Clerk, for a fee per entry. The Court of the Lord Lyon says the index and entries up to about a century ago can also be viewed online through Scotland’s official records website, where searching the index is free and images carry a fee.
Are coats of arms in the United States official?
No. The United States has no authority that grants or registers personal arms, so American usage cannot be checked against an official register. Bolton’s American Armory (1927) records arms used in America since colonial times, but its author stressed that it is a record of use, not of right.
What does a genuine grant of arms look like?
From the College of Arms it is letters patent on vellum, with the arms painted by a College artist, the text written out by a scrivener, and the signatures and seals of the Kings of Arms, with a copy entered in the College’s registers. Scottish letters patent are likewise on vellum, sealed with the Lord Lyon’s seal and recorded in the Public Register.