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A common simple example of canting arms: the castle representing the Kingdom of Castile and the lion representing the Kingdom of León.^[1]

Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus. The term was derived from the Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing.

French heralds used the term armes parlantes (English: "talking arms"), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial allusions require research for elucidation because of changes in language and dialect that have occurred over the past millennium.

Canting arms – some in the form of rebuses – are quite common in German civic heraldry. They have also been increasingly used in the 20th century among the British royal family.^{[citation needed]} When the visual representation is not straightforward but as complex as a rebus, this is sometimes called a rebus coat of arms.^{[citation needed]}
An in-joke among Society for Creative Anachronism heralds is the pun, "Heralds don't pun; they cant."^[2]

Examples of canting arms

Personal coat of arms

A famous example of canting arms are those of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (consort of King George VI of the United Kingdom). Her arms (pictured below) contain in sinister (i.e. on the bearer's left, viewer's right) the bows and blue lions that make up the arms of the Bowes and Lyon families.

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  Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon: bows and lions
  

  
  

  
  


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  Princess Beatrice of York: Beatrice = bee thrice = three bees
  

  
  

  
  


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  Rosetti family: three roses
  

  
  

  
  


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  Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone: three hog's heads
  

  
  

  
  


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  Cockburn: three cocks
  

  
  

  
  


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  Crowninshield family: crown on the shield
  

  
  

  
  


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  De Barry family: three bars gemelles
  

  
  

  
  


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  Coat of arms of the head of the Portuguese Costa family: costa means "rib" in Latin
  

  
  

  
  


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  President Eisenhower: a blacksmith's anvil, as Eisenhauer = German for "iron-hewer"
  

  
  

  
  


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  Flag of Maryland, originally the arms of George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, whose mother's maiden name was Crossland; the latter's arms shows a cross.^[3]

  
  

  
  


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  Theodore Roosevelt: roses-fields
  

  
  

  
  

Municipal coat of arms

Municipal coats of arms which interpret the town's name in rebus form are also called canting. Here are a few examples.

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  The arms of Berwickshire, Scotland: Bear and Wych Elm
  

  
  

  
  


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  Elmbridge, Surrey (1974): elm tree on bridge. (The toponym is related to bridges but not to elms; the prefix refers to Emel, a former name for the river Mole.^[4])
  

  
  

  
  


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  Châteaurenard: Château = castle; Renard = fox
  

  
  

  
  


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  Eberbach (1976): Eber = boar; Bach = brook (wavy blue fess)
  

  
  

  
  


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  of the village of Hensbroek in North Holland interprets the toponym as "hen-breeches" (the toponym is unrelated to either "hen" or "breeches", deriving from a personal name Hein and the Dutch cognate of "brook", i.e. "Henry's brook".)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Freixo de Espada à Cinta (1926): Freixo = ash; de Espada = with sword; à Cinta = at the waist, in Portuguese
  

  
  

  
  


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  Falkenberg (1948): Falken = falcon; Berg = hill, in Swedish
  

  
  

  
  


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  Seinäjoki (1951): seinä = wall, joki = river, in Finnish
  

  
  

  
  


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  Berlin (1954): Bär = bear
  

  
  

  
  


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  Manacor: man = hand, a = at, cor = heart, in Catalan^[6]

  
  

  
  


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  Torrevieja (1829): Torre = tower, vieja = old
  

  
  

  
  


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  Kryvyi Rih: Kryvyi = crooked, Rih = horn, in Ukrainian
  

  
  

  
  


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  Rueda (1986): rueda = wheel in Spanish
  

  
  

  
  


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  Łódź: Łódź = boat
  

  
  

  
  


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  Wolfsburg: Wolf's Castle
  

  
  

  
  


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  Arms of Magenta, France, feature a bend sinister in magenta, an extremely rare tincture in heraldry
  

  
  

  
  


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  Örnsköldsvik (1894): Örn = Eagle, Sköld = Shield and Vik = Bay.
  

  
  

  
  

Ecclesiastical coats of arms

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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing: The lances crossed per saltire are a play on the name of the see, the city of Lansing, Michigan.^[7]

  
  

  
  


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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre: The mounds in the circle at the center of the arms are a play on the name of city in which the diocese is based, Rockville Centre, New York.^[8]

  
  

  
  


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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge: The shield features a red baton, referencing the city name, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and its literal French meaning.
  

  
  

  
  


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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo: The arms feature an American bison, colloquially called a buffalo, referencing the name of city in which the see is based, Buffalo, New York.
  

  
  

  
  


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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville: The tincture of the field, tenné, is depicted as brown, referencing the seat of the diocese, Brownsville, Texas.
  

  
  

  
  


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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix: The arms feature a phoenix, the namesake of the diocesan seat, Phoenix, Arizona.
  

  
  

  
  


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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth: The arms feature a castle, referencing the fort for which the city, Fort Worth, Texas, was named.
  

  
  

  
  


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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage: The anchor references the namesake of the see, Anchorage, Alaska.
  

  
  

  
  


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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford: The arms feature a hart, a male deer, in the midst of flowing water, i.e., fording a body of water, referencing the name of the see, Hartford, Connecticut.
  

  
  

  
  


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  The arms of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles: The arms feature three pairs of wings, denoting three angels, and referencing the namesake of the see, Los Angeles, California, which translates to "the angels."
  

  
  

  
  

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Canting arms.

References

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  "Meaning of Arms". Heraldica.org. 2001-06-20.