What is the meaning of bulls-or maybe cows- on a family coat of arms?
The meanings of designs in heraldry are created and are not fixed. There is a particular person who first invented the design, and the objects in the arms, called charges, meant something to him. The meaning of cows and bulls as charges, therefore, can’t be known without knowing who the armiger was. He could have been a cattle farmer, or his name sounded like the animal’s name, or there could be an ancestral story or family myth that incorporated a particular animal. WIKIPEDIA: “The specific meaning of each element of a coat of arms is subjective. Though the original armiger may have placed particular meaning on a charge, these meanings are not necessarily retained from generation to generation. Unless canting arms incorporate an obvious pun on the bearer’s name, it may difficult to find meaning in them.
