Clan Crests and their Meanings RSS Feed

We’re back to visual punning (‘canting’) with the Fraser crest. ‘Fraise’ in French means strawberry, so this one is quite on the nose in terms of symbolism - a strawberry plant. The crest was devised by the Lords Fraser sometime in the seventeenth century, possibly when they were elevated to the peerage. The title Lord Fraser had been created by Ch..

Another griffon! Unlike Forsyth with its blue griffon, this one is ‘proper’ in the heraldic blazon, meaning it should be coloured in its natural colours. I’ve not seen one in the wild, but tradition is griffons should be shown gold.  The motto is ‘be it fast’, (in other words, let it be fast). There’s suspicious parallel with the Leslie crest w..

This surname has various spellings, Smith being the most common, but also Smythe, Smyt, Smit, and Gow (being the Gaelic), Gowan, MacGow and MacGowan. It’s an occupational surname, referring to someone who works metal, and mostly refers as shorthand specifically to a blacksmith, someone who works in iron or steel. Being such an important and wid..

A blue griffon with black talons and beak and a gold crown on its head. James Coat’s 1725 Dictionary of Heraldry says that griffons were used ‘to express strength and swiftness join'd together, and extraordinary Vigilancy to preserve things they are entrusted with’.Blue crowned Griffons had been used on the shield of Forsyth of Forsyth since at..

The Forrester crest is a hound’s head with collar, with the motto ‘blaw hunter blaw thy horn’. This comes from the Lords Forrester of Corstorphine. This was more or less the crest of Forrester recorded in the Workman Manuscript of 1565-6 (spelled there ‘Foster’), which had the motto ‘Hunter bla vy horn’. The arms of Lord Forrester included thre..

The Forbes Crest is a stag’s head with ten tynes on its antlers, and that specific formulation has been in place since at least the 1670s and is described in Sir George Mackenzie’s ‘Families of Scotland manuscript’. It was registered in the Lyon office at that time. Like we saw with Colquhoun and Davidson (and with more to follow) stags tend to..

The Fleming crest, originating with the Fleming’s of Biggar, consists of a goat’s head and the motto ‘Let the Deed Shaw’. Both motto and crest were recorded in the Workman’s Manuscript of 1565-6 for Lord Fleming. The goats head is rare in Scottish heraldry and a slight puzzle. James Coats’ 1725 Dictionary of Heraldry describes the goat as a symbol ..

The Fergusson crest features a bee on a thistle on a chapeau (hat) lined with ermine. It dates, minus the cap, to just before 1722 and was registered with the Lyon Office by Sir John Fergusson of Kilkerran.The Fergusson Arms shown in Nisbet's System of Heraldry of 1722 Obviously, the thistle is a symbol of Scotland, and had been for many centurie..

Sadly there isn’t one, as MacKinlay wasn’t a fully fledged clan/kindred by the usual metrics, instead being powerful followers of larger kin groups. As such, there were important MacKinlay septs of four larger clans, Buchanan for those east of Loch Lomond, MacFarlane for those north of Loch Lomond, Farquahrson for those in Aberdeenshire and the nor..