Am I a bit young to design and assume arms?

 
epicHouseplant
 
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epicHouseplant
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06 June 2013 18:46
 

It’s been a while since I’ve been on these forums. For those who may not know me (and I am very forgettable) my name is Thomas and I am from Texas. I am currently 24, approaching 25. When I joined I had just been admitted to Sam Houston State University, and now I am about a year away from graduating with a Physics B.S. and a minor in Math. (At least. ...it gets weird.)

I have an interest in arms again, and for now it seems as though my life is not in as much flux. I kind of want to assume arms, but I do not know if that is the wisest decision since I do not know what my profession is or if my interests will remain the same. Much less what would happen if four to seven years down the line I earn a Ph.D. like I would like to.

 

However, I have a greater understanding of the elegance of simplicity, and several things which I would like to see have remained constant over the past two years. So perhaps it would be appropriate to design and assume arms?

 

I’m not really sure at the moment.

 

Edit: And looking at my user name, I would kind of like to change it somehow.

 
Iain Boyd
 
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Iain Boyd
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07 June 2013 01:03
 

"Am I a bit young to design and assume arms?"

Most certainly not!

 

I can assure you that all of us will look forward to learning of your ideas.

 

Also, I can assure you that most, if not all, of us will be happy to assist you in your endeavours.

 

Regards,

 

Iain Boyd

 
steven harris
 
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steven harris
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07 June 2013 09:27
 

I was 29 when I started to design my arms, and 32 when I assumed the final design.


Iain Boyd;99238 wrote:

I can assure you that all of us will look forward to learning of your ideas.

Also, I can assure you that most, if not all, of us will be happy to assist you in your endeavours.

Indeed!!

 
Kenneth Mansfield
 
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Kenneth Mansfield
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07 June 2013 16:49
 

Firstly, you are not too young to design and assume arms. Whether you are likely to be content with them for your lifetime, only you can tell. There are for the most part two main approaches to designing arms. One is to design a coat of arms for you and the other is to design a coat of arms for your family. When I designed my coat of arms, I approached it the way I thought the College of Arms would approach it if they were going to grant a coat of arms to me. If you look at a lot of the recent grants of arms from the CoA, they very much reflect the life of the grantee (at least the ones we see, which are often of famous people). The result is that my coat of arms are a wonderful reflection of me. The items on the chief are a reflection of my family history, but otherwise there is no reason my family should be attracted to my arms at all. I sometimes wish that I had taken the approach of designing family arms and consulted with my father and brother, but I think for a long time I was hung up on some silly idea of primogeniture and I’m not the eldest son. It didn’t help that I didn’t have any (biological) children at the time. Now I wish more than ever that my arms represented me as a conduit from my father to my son and it seems almost pretentious to want my son to be excited about inheriting my arms vs. inheriting his family arms. Just something to think about I guess.

 
 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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07 June 2013 17:13
 

(a) You’re not too young, because…

(b) You’re mature enough to be concerned about whether you’re too young.

 
Jeremy Keith Hammond
 
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Jeremy Keith Hammond
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07 June 2013 17:30
 

You’re not too young! Of course, I could be biased, I adopted mine before I graduated college (21 or 22).

As for design and not knowing where you’ll be in the future - consider symbology that’s more general, and wouldn’t depend on a career track. Perhaps you hold an inherent value that is not likely to be changed in your life (maybe a religion, or lack thereof) that can be symbolized.

 

Alternatively, there’s no reason you can’t adopt a design you feel is just aesthetically pleasing.

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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Michael F. McCartney
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07 June 2013 20:49
 

Ditto all the above, especially Ken’s personal vs family comments—when you seriously start designing arms for the long haul (in relationship terms, "Ms. Right" rather than "Ms. Right Now") you need to ponder where, conceptually, you want to go or it’s at best no better than 50-50 you’ll succeed.

FWIW my personal preference (read: passion) is the family arms approach, though of course to each his own etc.  If (as I believe) the purpose of arms, especially in an American context, is essentially connective—i.e. to symbolically unite & identify an extended family—then a purely personal approach doesn’t fit the bill.

 

Designing at a relatively eary age (I was about your age, as were several old-timers here) this has the added advantage of mooting the angst of "what will I be when I grow up."

 

If you’d like to include us in your quest (as essentially non-voting advisors) it would be helpful to share a bit of family history—names of (great)grandparents, maternal & paternal, as far back as you can or would like to go, generational moves from/to what places, any visual symbols associated with the family over tme (trademarks, cattle brands, etc), any multi-generational educational/occuptional/religious affiliations, military service, etc.  While the end result should ideally be boiled down to a relatively simple design, its useful to have as rich as possible a cupboard to draw from.  One of your goals (assuming the family arms approach) is to include design themes that would be meaningful to as wide a scope of extended fmily as posible.

 

And above all, be patient—again, looking for Ms. Right requires more time and thought than picking this evening’s Ms. Right Now who my not be nearly as appealng once the initial attraction wears off, or wears thin.

 
gselvester
 
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gselvester
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07 June 2013 23:16
 

Kenneth Mansfield;99248 wrote:

Now I wish more than ever that my arms represented me as a conduit from my father to my son and it seems almost pretentious to want my son to be excited about inheriting my arms vs. inheriting his family arms. Just something to think about I guess.


Kenneth, there is no such thing as "family" arms. All coats of arms start out as arms granted to or assumed by an individual. Eventually, after a few generations they become associated with a family because they are the arms inherited down a few generations by the family started by the original armiger. Why should your son not feel good about inheriting your arms and passing them on to his children just because they didn’t involve his grandfather? You consulted your father and he didn’t want it. You are the one who is the original armiger. Your family (the one you started) will use these arms for generations to come and this is the way it is with all armigerous families. Someone has to be the first. Why should it have been your father instead of you?

 

I have always thought it was a little silly when an individual who is interested in heraldry designs arms for himself as if they had belonged to his father (who didn’t give a hang about heraldry). I understand that the idea of having inherited the arms to show a link with your ancestors is attractive but you should console yourself with the idea that your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren will inherit these arms from you.

 
gselvester
 
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gselvester
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07 June 2013 23:22
 

epicHouseplant;99224 wrote:

I kind of want to assume arms, but I do not know if that is the wisest decision since I do not know what my profession is or if my interests will remain the same. Much less what would happen if four to seven years down the line I earn a Ph.D. like I would like to.


Simple answer: you aren’t too young. Having said that remember that your coat of arms is a mark of unique identification, not a CV in pictures. Some of the variables you mention don’t necessarily have to be reflected in your coat of arms. Originally coats of arms were simple employing a device or design that was simply unique and not necessarily reflective of occupation, background or even name.

 

I would also add that designing my own arms was a process that began when I was twenty and didn’t come to a point of being settled until I was about 31 and the design underwent many changes during those years.

 

I suppose I’m trying to say that this takes some time. You are certainly not too young to begin the process but perhaps you should not expect to finish it after just a few sketches and a few weeks of tinkering. You may wish to sit with the design for a long time and allow it to evolve before officially assuming the arms. But, by all means make a start!

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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Michael F. McCartney
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08 June 2013 06:09
 

Strongly agree with Fr Guy’s post #9 above.

As to his #8, while I don’t share his view, he makes a well-reasoned argument for the "start with yourself" approach.  IMO it all depends on how you view the purpose of heraldry—whether personal or familial, and if familial, whether limited to your own descendants or to a broader extended family.  IIRC there are examples of both approaches in our members armorial.

 

As I noted earlier, this is a decision you should make early on (after careful consideration, and if possible with some consultation with any siblings, cousins or whatever who may be interested.  You might also consider the general practices of your own ancestral tradition, though of course you are not bound to do so if you don’t wish to.*

 

Note that in the American context at least, no one within the extended family is obligated to use the new arms—but then, neither are any of your own direct descendants.  Each individual, now or in future generations, is free to accept & use the arms you adopt; or to design new arms for himself & any of his descendants who like them better than yours; or to ignore the whole exercise and eschew arms altogether.  And each future descendant is likewise individuaally free to do the same.

 

To paraphrase the old Mission Impossible, "your challenge, if you choose to accept it" is to create a new design whose symbolism and artistic merit will inspire your family (whether extended or limited to your own descendants) to identify with and accept the new arms as their own, individually and collectively.  Hopefully we can help—but in the end it will be you & yours who will decide.

 

(*For example, many of us who come from Scottish or Irish roots & bear Scottish or Irish names have modeled our approach to the clan-based traditions of those countries; in which case we likely already have a general design theme indicative of our surname to work from and adapt to our situation here, if we choose to follow that approach; but of course not so closely as to infringe on those old-world arms.  Or we may look for some sort of "canting" arms in which charges suggest or sound like some or all parts of our name, either in English or our ancestral language.  There are any number of other approaches which others are better qualified to discuss.)

==============

Re-reading this, I apologize for the high-falutin’ hyperbole; the process really can be fun!

 
Kenneth Mansfield
 
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Kenneth Mansfield
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08 June 2013 09:32
 

Father Guy is of course right in that there is no such thing as "family arms" except, what do you call arms that belong to you and your brothers and your cousins. I call them "family arms" but don’t confuse that with what the bucket shops will sell you.

Guy, I see your point and I appreciate it. I don’t know if my father would have given a hang if I’d presented the idea to him, which I didn’t. I know in retrospect that my twin brother would have, but he has no interest in sharing my arms, which really are representative of me (and not of us).

 

I agree that adopting arms or, better yet, getting a grant in the name of an ancestor can be silly. And in the case of a grant, it can become a genealogical lie that people start to believe. But if done well, with common descendents (expanding out to cousins and not just brothers and sisters), it can be a unifying cause, strengthening family identity.

 

Anyway, I’m not necessarily cautioning against what I did. I did, I think, come up with a nice coat of arms anyway. Mostly I’m just advocating putting some thought into why one wants a coat of arms and whether or not it is important to him to include his family. And really, to think about whether it might be one day, even if it isn’t now.

 
 
Snyder
 
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Snyder
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08 June 2013 12:05
 

I dont think you are to young to assume arms, but with that I think being patient and not rushing the project will be vital to long term enjoyment of the arms. Looking back at my early 20s, which was only a decade ago, and reflecting at my interests and values then compared to today, a lot has changed but in turn a lot has stayed the same.

Take advantage of this group for guidance and advice. The beauty of this group is amount of experience, knowledge, and perspectives of heraldry…and brutal honesty. My first design as horrid and over the course of 4 years I refined and adjusted to what I have now. That is greatly due to a lot of people in this group, including Ken, Michael, Joe, and Father selvester.

 

So yeah, my advice, fwiw, just be patient and youll be fine.

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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Michael F. McCartney
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12 June 2013 03:48
 

As is often the case, several of us (mea culpa too) have departed from the original question and wandered into a somewhat related but essentially different question/dispute that probably deserves it’s own thread—

...or at least, the original poster here (who we all clearly agree is not at all too young to begin his quest for arms!) deserves to have his own thread back, minus a prolonged philosophical squabble over the nature and purpose of arms generally.

 

Apologies to our young apprentice!  (OK, I’ve been watching Star Wars re-runs on late night TV…)

 
Kenneth Mansfield
 
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Kenneth Mansfield
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12 June 2013 11:25
 

epicHouseplant;99224 wrote:

And looking at my user name, I would kind of like to change it somehow.


Oh yeah, send a PM to Kimon. He can help you out with that.

 
 
mjsmith
 
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mjsmith
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12 June 2013 14:04
 

I think that since this question has been answered, the next question is how long do we have to wait to see what ideas you have for your own arms?

 
Alexander Schrenk
 
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Alexander Schrenk
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13 June 2013 00:07
 

epicHouseplant;99224 wrote:

... I am currently 24, approaching 25. ... I have an interest in arms again, and for now it seems as though my life is not in as much flux. I kind of want to assume arms, but I do not know if that is the wisest decision since I do not know what my profession is or if my interests will remain the same.


I should hope you’re not too young, as you are the same age as myself and I assumed arms more than a year ago!

 

I understand why you might be worried about assuming arms "early on," before your profession or position is solidified. Presumably you would want to reference it in your arms. But maybe you can find something that is more permanent, or more essential, than your profession? I would guess that there are certain elements of your identity of which you could be reasonably certain will not change.

 

Sounds like it would be time to start brainstorming…