What is the difference between a coat of arms and a family crest?
The crest is the part of the entire “achievement” or “coat of arms” that appears above the helmet and shield. Confusion over the term “family crest” probably arose from an understandable abbreviation of the terminology in heraldry for an important part of a coat of arms. One of the most respected sources for heraldry information is Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, first published in 1859 and revised over the years in various reprints. (The current version is published by the Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland.) It is not difficult to see how the use of the term “crest” could have become synonymous in common use with the term “coat of arms” since one is a part of the other and, through time, “the crest” has been associated with family names, independent of the coat of arms, in such publications as Fairbairn’s. Indeed, crests have been used on engravings, rings, bookplates, and other means of displaying one’s heritage for many
