Names and Heraldry in the SCA
One of the things you can do within the SCA is come up with a name and associated heraldry that you would like to be known by. Then you can get these registered, so that no one else within the SCA will be able to use your name and heraldry. For more information, talk to your local herald (person who specialises in registering names and heraldry). They will be able to tell you more information, as well as check if your proposed name or heraldry are in conflict with anyone else’s.
Where to start with choosing a name:
There are a number of ways to begin. You can start with a name that you like and look for its roots to see if there are similar medieval versions, you can browse through lists of names until you find something you like, or you can pick a location for your name (e.g. Scandinavia, England, France, Russia etc.) and look at the names used in that country until you find something you like.
- Dictionary of Medieval Names From European Sources
- SCA College of Arms: Name Articles
- The Academy of Saint Gabriel: Medieval Names Archive
- Kallinikos Gavras’ collection of SCA-relevant resources for Aztec names, titles and heraldry
Where to start with choosing heraldry:
If you have never done anything with heraldry before, here is a really basic introductory pdf which will help you get started. WARNING: This pdf was NOT created by a herald (a person who knows a lot about heraldry, especially within the SCA). You should always run your ideas for heraldry past a herald, and they will help you out. If you don’t know how to contact a herald, ask one of the club committee members, and they will help put you in touch with someone.
- A Beginner’s Guide to Designing Heraldry
- SCA College of Arms: Armory Articles
- Mistholme: Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry – Resource for some of the types of charges (symbols) that you could put on your heraldry
- drawshield.net Random Heraldry Generator – A non-SCA (and therefore what is generated may not be usable) random generator that will create random heraldric designs. This was mostly put on here for fun and is not a serious resource, lol.
Further Resources
- SVG Graphics for Heralds – Clip art you can use for creating heraldry