Or more precisely, where shouldn’t I cant my name? I’ve been working on creating my arms off and on for a couple of years now and have questions as to where and how to cant.
One thought was to cant it in the motto so I could easily change it. But my latin is non existent so it gets difficult research it in google. Additionally, it doesn’t feel right to have it there. I would rather leave it for a more inspirational message. The obvious place is on the shield, but I haven’t come up with a design that I like.
The cant that I’m using lends itself to the crest very well so that’s what I’m leaning towards, I just don’t know if it’s proper to cant in the crest. My surname is Wiggins and the cant that I’m thinking of is a play on wig. A head of hair seems a natural fit. I like the way it might sound blazoned, "upon a helm…, a head of hare…" but since it’s not always displayed, is it a good palce? Or since it’s not always shown, is it the best place? It could leave the shield alone to go a completly different direction.
Is it common to have the same cant on the shield also? If I do, I feel it should include the "ins" part of wiggins somehow, but I can’t come up with anything that works for that. Would it be better to just have say, a hare rampant in the shield alluding to the main cant in the crest?
Why not simply use a hare as a primary charge on your shield and leave it at that? It’s rather subtle canting, which I personally like.
Dear John,
There is no wrong place to cant.
During the middle ages the cant was on the shield. In more recent times the College of arms seems to restrict canting to the crest.
I use a canting motto. In fact, if I had thought about it at the time, I would use two canting mottoes.
Re you own arms, may I suggest that you consider judge’s wigs. One of our (New Zealand) Governor’s General has three on his shield - which, if I recall correctly, refers to his career in the judiciary. At the moment I do not recall which Governor General it is, but, will try and find a picture of his arms for you.
Update -
The governor general is Sir David Stuart Beattie, a former high court judge.
Check his entry on wikipedia at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Beattie>. The shield of his arms are illustrated at the end of the article. Note that two bees are included as a cant.
Regards,
Iain Boyd
So on the question of where I shouldn’t cant, the answer is that I can do it in any part of the achievement. I think I’ll have it the crest then, leaving the shield open to more options. The idea of a wig had occured to me but I prefer something less obvious, a little more sideways. Although I think it would be funny to see the mantling replaced by a long flowing wig.
Dear John,
Personally, I would not really like to see the wig continue into the mantling - despite being a fan of German crests where this occurs quite often. It would require a really good artist to ‘pull it off’.
During the evening (for me), the following cants for a crest based on your full surname occurred to me -
a. "On a roundel gules a judge’s wig argent" - although, strictly speaking, the wig is ‘on’ the roundel rather than ‘in’ it
b. "Within an annulet gules a judge’s wig argent" - although, again, strictly speaking, the wig is ‘within’ the annulet rather than ‘in’ it.
Another possibility is -
"A judge’s head proper" or "A judge’s head couped at the shoulders proper" - either would be acceptable - a head alone is used by a Scottish family and by Jean de Grailly (a founding member of the Order of the Garter) while a female head couped at the shoulders is used by the Mercer’s livery company, London.
Regards,
Iain Boyd
Dear John,
Regarding the present correspondence, especially from Iain. There is a further example of the use of a judge’s wig in England used as charge in arms of fairly recent date in heraldic time. When Sir Norman Birkett, a former Lord Justice of Appeal was created a Baron in the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Birkett, of Ulverston in the County Palatine of Lancaster in 1958 he was granted arms, crest and supporters as was his due as a peer, he chose as his arms ‘Gules three full bottomed wigs argent’, a decidedly attractive and simple design where the wigs default to being affronty (ie: facing the viewer). My only caveat regarding the correspondence so far is that it might be best to avoid the use of judge’s wig or any legal wig (ie: barristers, etc) if one is not associated with the legal profession. Perhaps you might consider to make use of a gentleman’s periwig or peruke which was introduced into the English speaking world (including the American colonies) from France after the restoration of the Monarchy in Britain in 1660. This particular wig was worn by gentleman either shoulder length or a little longer. I can imagine that ‘three periwigs’ either affronty or side on with or without an ordinary (ie: chevron, etc) or other charges would look particularly well suited to heraldry.
With every good wish
John
Let’s back up a bit. What information if any do you have re: the origins or etymology of your surname? Possibly it’s connected to wigs (e.g. maybe a term for a wig-maker) but IMO it’s worth a bit of research—you may turn up something interesting and potentially useful as a possible cant, or you may not, but it shouldn’t be all that time-comsuming or difficult to research.
(As usual lately, I’m working from a hotel lobby computer -this time in Southern California - so I can’t do much from here; but any reasonably large public library should have a book or two on the origins of English surnames.)
If the name is really German or Eastern European or whatever, it may of course be a bit harder! 
—but it may also be more interesting. Cants don’t have to be in English, especially if the surname isn’t.
Backing up a bit farther, have you given much thought to how narrowly or broadly you wish the arms to apply? - i.e. just to you & maybe your offspring if any? or to your immediate parents & siblings? or "n"th cousins descending from a particular shared Wiggins ancestor? (All valid approaches, though a broader coverage - my preference FWIW - would suggest some consultation with at least some of the extended family, so that the final design would hopefully resonate with them as well.)
Finally (for now at least - "playing herald" is one of our favorite group exercises) it would be helpful for us, in trying to be helpful to you, to know a bit more about you & your (however narrow or extended) family - history, origins, occupations, interests/passions, achievements, military/civilian service, etc.; which may - or may not, no guarantees! - suggest a variety of possible approaches for your consideration. The design process is generally better if the initial net is cast broadly for possible ideas, then gradually winnowed down to something simple and significant to you & yours. (If you’re not familiar with our "refrigerator" test, let us know - it will come up eventually anyway)
Of course final decisions are yours, but several heads and ample time are often better than just one or two folks in a mad dash for a final result that may or may not stand the test of time.
Let the games begin!
While this thread was just regarding where or where not to cant, I obviously have started to think of what direction I want to go with this. I appreciate everyones input. I’ll start a thread seeking help with my arms when my membership goes through, I submitted my request today.
As to the question of etymology, it doesn’t seem that the name simply derives from a trade or anything of that sort like the name Baker or Smith. It looks like it may derive from other words used in the days of the Norman conquest, possibly germanic, but equally possibly not.
A geneologist in our family has traced my direct line back to a wiggins that emmigrated to the US from england in 1635. It looks rather questionable that far back, but I would say that it looks pretty solid from the revolutionary war onwards. I have at least one ancestor listed in the DAR index. Having said that, I haven’t tried to independently verify any of the information.
I’m just one generation removed from a Lithuanian heritage on my mothers side. I wanted to incorporate a portion of that country’s arms into my own, Azure, a double cross or.
I think the refrigerator test is where you make a mock-up and contemplate it for a period to see if it grows on you or if you see things you want to change. To that end, I’ve already started a refrigerator test of sorts already. Last year I sketched out a bunch of ideas on a small stack of post-its and have been mulling them over and changing, adding or throwing out ideas periodically. In the last couple of weeks I made a mock-up in photoshop to stare at and love/hate. As it stand right now, knowing that I’ll be seeking this forums input in the near future, it is blazoned: Argent, on a cross gules, a sword proper, (then something that says that the upper right white area should be blue with a gold double cross.) Crest: On a helm, issuing from a wreath argent and Or (or possibly Gules, Argent, and azure to represent the flag I fought for) a head of hare.
John - in no particular order - did you intend to say a head of hair (presumably a hairy human head) or hare (a rabbit)? Either might be nice, but not interchangeable!
As to etymology - a quick google search found one possible origin as being "son of Wiggin" which apparently was an early English forename (personal name) - rather like "Johnson" for "son of John" or "Edmunds" for "son of Edmund" & similar. Of course this leads to the question, what was the etymology or derivation of Wiggan, however spelled. as a forename? (Also noted a number of spelling variations - Wiggan, Wigan, Weigand, & others - early English spelling was usually phonetic, based on whatever a given scribe or clerk thought it sounded like to him, so don’t sweat the spelling variations. I’ve even seen old documents with the same person’s name spelled more than one way in the same document.
Most of the notes I saw show the name as English (Leicestershire, Cornwall, Yorkshire, London etc., IMO likely unrelated); but one noted "Wiggein" as a surname in East Teviotdale Scotland in the late 1500’s (likely extracted from Black’s "Surnames of Scotland" but I haven’t had time to actually look there - as noted, I’m on vacation & my time - and spouse’s patience! - are limited….
Please note that this was NOT original or extensive research - I just googled "Wiggins arms" and traipsed through the postings of several commercial firms that sell coats of arms. The arms shown in each case were Gules three martlets Argent and a chief Or; but looking at the on-line versions of Burkes General Armory and Fox-Davies Armorial Families, the arms I saw were different - either Gules three mullets (stars) Argent & a chief Or (but hard to read on this hotel monitor), or Vair on a pile Or a mountain-ash tree proper. (I’m NOT suggesting that you base your design project on any of these, since they apparently represent quite distinct & unrelated families, unless/until (unlikely) you can document your descent from any of these particular families. I mention them more for the info cited re: the history of the name, which I suspect was most likely gleaned from standard name reference books; and in any case is incomplete for your purposes without finding & considering the etymology of the forename.)
In any case, visual references to the surname are only one of the possible design themes you may, or may not, eventually choose to incorporate - for example, none of the variations noted above appear to be based on the etymology of the surname, unless there is some now-obscure reference I’m missing, which is quite possible!
As for the refrigerator test, good man! - but in the end, when you’ve eventiually narrowed it down to one or two options, give it lots of time - the goal isn’t just to visually appreciate or not the particular designs, but to see if one of them, or parts of two or three, gradually establish itself in your subconscious as "you" or "your family" - otherwise, weeks/months/years down line, you’ll be back to the drawing board looking for that subconscious satisfaction. We sometimes say "blazon in haste, regret at leisure" - or if you prefer, searching for Ms. Right, not just Ms. Right-Now. (I’m tempted to introduce a new criteria I’ll call the Tattoo Question - would you be willing to tattoo the design on your own arm, and on your kids’ arms, knowing how difficult & painful it is to remove it? - not that you would actually tattoo your kids’ arms, but "as if" that was your plan.)
A bit off-topic, but when/where did you serve?
Mike~~
(25th Inf Div, 1968-69, Cu Chi RVN)
Wig in Dutch means wedge maybe you can do something with that in your design.
Head of hare blazoned is phonetically the same as head of hair. Visually, the allusion doesn’t jump out and sock you on the nose like a wig would. A clever boy, or someone examining arms for such things may get it just looking at the emblazonment. As for the rest, only those curious enough to investigate would get the reward. To me, that’s the prize of the cant. To have something look one way, but upon further examination the viewer would be treated to an "Ah haa, I see what you did there" moment. That’s the idea that I’m going for by not having something as obvious as a wig. I’m still trying to think of something more clever. I don’t want it to be too terribly hard like the De Lucy arms, or too easy like, well, like a wig. I’m open for ideas.
I’ve seen the variations of the Wiggins arms displayed by the internet "arms" dealers. But it would be a goose chase to try to tie myself to some existing arms rather than find my own family arms if they exist. I don’t have any information that my line is armigerous other than a sheet of paper that my father had in his belongings with a coat of arms and some words under it describing it all. It’s long since been discarded by my mother, but being the only evidence of any armorial heritage, it’s likely just bogus arms from the aformentioned "arms" dealers. It’s been so long ago that I don’t remember anything specific, but It’s entirely possible that it was the gules, three mullets argent, a chief Or variation, which also leads me to believe that it was bogus.
I’ve contacted the College of Arms to get their help and they were very friendly and cordial. For a small fortune they would be more than happy to perform a cursory search for my surname. For a rather large fortune, plus my first born and a pack of gum they could assist me in deeper research of my lineage. They made clear that it was a long shot that I would find any armigerous ancestors, so I decided to keep my rather large fortune, first born and pack of gum. My small fortune is being spent on my first born and other offspring.
As far as my service, I should clarify that I didn’t actually participate in fighting. I was a carreer guardsman, but never deployed into combat. My head was nodding last night as I was typing and didn’t word that very good. It should probably read "the flag I served under." Starting in 1986, I spent 8 years with the 34th ID in IA and 14 years with the 133rd AW in MN.
I can’t say that Ill ever want to have arms tattooed on my body, but here is what I’m looking at right now. It’s a mock up made of peices put together from clip art, wikipedia, and the Colege of Arms newsletter, then run through the Photoshop hopper to make it look somewhat natural together. We’ll call this my jumping off point. To my untrained, "green" eye, it looks good, but I’m reminded of my first efforts to help my wife with scrapbooking. Like a kindergartener showing their mommy a fine rendition of a hand turkey, I proudly showed her the product of my labors and was promptly met with a polite chuckle. So while it’s probably rudimentary at best, with some help and some time, I hope to come up with something amazing.
http://imageshack.us/a/img537/7858/ffae38.jpg
One more question while I’m thinking of it. With multiple arms registries, and without a heraldic authority, how do you research difference? How will I know that my arms, when I eventually come up with a final product, will be unique?
emrys;102259 wrote:
Wig in Dutch means wedge maybe you can do something with that in your design.
I don’t have any Dutch in my family that I’m aware of, so it wouldn’t have any meaning for me. But I like the idea. I can look at the Lithuanian language to see if there is anything that may help.
Wig or periwig in Lithuanian is perukas. But it’s obviously a derivative of peruke I suppose, so that takes it back to wig. Still, peruke has some possibilities.
Pear?
Pair?
Perk?
Hare is Kiskis
Hair is plaukai or plaukas
While I don’t really care for having a wig on my arms, I wouldn’t mind a reference to it. Using peruke, how about a pear and a castle (rook), or a pair of castles. I don’t really care for either of those on the sheild, but maybe in the crest in some form.
No, I think that for now I will just use the head of hare for a cant. Expecting a viewer recognize that there’s a rebus, connect it to an archaic word for wig, then relate that to wiggins is more than I think anyone will do. Most probably won’t even pick up on head of hare. I dislike having to explain a lengthy joke.
Is there a reason to use couped vs erased? I don’t know how a hare’s head would look cabossed, does anyone know of any examples of it?
QuiQuog;102276 wrote:
No, I think that for now I will just use the head of hare for a cant. Expecting a viewer recognize that there’s a rebus, connect it to an archaic word for wig, then relate that to wiggins is more than I think anyone will do. Most probably won’t even pick up on head of hare. I dislike having to explain a lengthy joke.
Is there a reason to use couped vs erased? I don’t know how a hare’s head would look cabossed, does anyone know of any examples of it?
No particular reason for couped vs. erased. I think caboshed would look more recognizable than in profile, but I’ve never seen it done except in the cartoons.
http://cdn.gunaxin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Bugs-Head.jpg
I agree that the cant is far-fetched, and probably too obscure to be worthwhile. But all that matters is that you like it.
