A shield is the one piece of kit that says who you are: in the Middle Ages, the design on it was your identity on the battlefield. This shield name generator gives you names for a legendary shield, a duty to go with it, and a coat of arms written in real heraldic language, with a plain-English translation.
Famous shields
- The Aegis was the shield (or goatskin cloak) of Zeus and Athena, later carrying the head of Medusa. Its name is why we still say "under the aegis of".
- Svalinn, in Norse myth, stands in front of the sun. Without it, the mountains and seas would burn.
- Pridwen is King Arthur's shield in Geoffrey of Monmouth, painted with the image of the Virgin Mary. In older Welsh tales the name belongs to his ship.
- The shield of Achilles, made by the smith-god Hephaestus, gets a whole passage of the Iliad describing the scenes worked into it.
Reading a coat of arms
Heraldry has its own language, from Norman French. A coat of arms names the background (the field) first, then what's on it (the charge) and its colour:
- Metals: or (gold) and argent (silver).
- Colours: gules (red), azure (blue), vert (green), sable (black) and purpure (purple).
- The rule of tincture: never put a colour on a colour or a metal on a metal, so the design can be seen from a distance. Every coat of arms the generator makes follows it.
- A few words: a lion rampant stands on its hind legs; an eagle displayed has its wings spread; a mullet is a star.
So Gules, a lion rampant or means a gold lion standing up on a red shield: the arms Scotland's kings would recognise, with the colours swapped.
Naming a shield
- A shield's job is to protect something. The "Name and duty" format makes that its title: Protector of the Pass, Protector of Lost Causes.
- Let the arms tell the story. A family with a tower on its shield held a castle; a key might mean they kept a gate.
- For a paladin or knight, pair this with the Knight Name Generator.