Why were familys giving coat of arms and what do they mean?
Families weren’t actually given coats of arms. Individuals were given them, and they were inheritable, but any coat of arms technically identifies only one person at any time. (There was a whole system of differences to show relationships, so related people could adapt one basic design.) Originally, these were means of identifying people in such situations as battles, tournaments, occupation of castles (and yes, all of this is very medieval). That’s why shields or flags are the basic shapes on which they’re depicted. They’re also generally associated with a certain degree of prominence. Noble and royal people had coats of arms; ordinary members of military units were more likely to display badges identifying their unit or their leader. (The Plantagenet royal line, for example, used the broom plant, planta genista, as a badge for its men. They also used coats of arms for members of the family.) Complicated rules evolved for differencing (mentioned above), inheritance, and the combining
