Family motto

[Sir Ollie]

I'm just wondering if anyone on the Escapist has a family motto, because I been researching my family history and found out that our family had a coat of arms and a motto.

Our motto is Data fata secutus which means following my destiny (kinda sucks)

Would show the coat of arms but its terrible.

Edit - Alright since you asked

Spoiler

 

[bue519]

My family has a motto too.
Shoot first and ask questions later.

 

[Trivun]

Come on, show us the coat of arms

As for me, I'm lucky, no motto or coat of arms xD

 

[Dragon Zero]

Ours is "Either Peace or War" but in latin. Our crest is interesting but I don't have pictures.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

No, we're peasants.

 

[flare09]

I'm pretty sure my mother's side of the family has a motto and a coat of arms. If I look around the house at some of these plaques I could find it. However, I don't know the motto.

EDIT: Ok I found a plaque with our coat of arms for my mom's side. I don't know if this is our motto, but under the coat of arms, it said Labore Et Ingenio. And a quick Google of that reveals something about a James E. Watt.

 

[Sindre1]

Ours is "Either Peace or War" but in latin.

So, just everything? Or anytime.

 

[LordCraigus]

The Wilson motto is 'He conquers, who conquers himself' which, for reasons I won't go into, I find very fitting. Apparently of Scottish descent, which is quite a coincidence as my first name is also.

http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.c/qx/wilson-coat-arms.htm

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[Sir Ollie]

Not sure if this applies to me, but the Lindsay clan has this crest badge:

Spoiler

Endure fort, apparently. Anyone know what that means?

The Lindsay clan motto is "Endure fort" which means "Endure boldly".

 

[JRCB]

My family background is Smith. The motto is "Luce non uro." I'll find out what it means (and the crest) later.

EDIT: It means "I shine, not burn."

 

[dmase]

My coat of arms is the same design except with the flag under the knight being a lion symbol. The moto above it is "while I have breath I have hope".
the colors are blue and gold, my school colors wierd.

 

[iain62a]

Being a MacMillan, my clan motto is "Miseris Succurrere Disco".

Disco. Fuck yeah.

Apparently it translates as "I learn to succour the distressed".

No idea where disco comes into that.

 

[DannyBoy451]

"Don't Tell the Police"

Wait a second...

 

[Anachronism]

My family doesn't have a motto, but I have a few that I'd be happy to use as a family motto.

"Dulce et decorum est ab hostibus fugere". It's Latin for: "It is sweet and fitting to flee from one's enemies".

"May I get to Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows I'm dead".

"As discretion is the better part of valour, so cowardice is the better part of discretion".

My personal favourite is the last one. I just need to get around to translating it into Latin.

 

[Trilby]

I realise I will almost certainly come across as insufferably snobbish for saying this, but just finding a coat of arms with your surname on it doesn't mean its yours. Not that many people are actually armigerous - in the UK, at least. In the US where there is no central heraldic body you can lay claim to anything.

Anyway, my family have several knocking about; the one I'm currently due to inherit is "Je ne cherche que unc", which comes with a spiffy coat of arms, an Earldom and a castle.
Crest: http://www.geocities.com/barensteel/Compton.jpg
The motto is in very old French, and roughly translates as "I look to no one", which is fitting considering the arrogance of that family.

If that goes south there's also "Brotherly love" (in the latin), which accompanies a rather non-PC crest of a black slave in chains brandishing tobacco while surrounded by diamonds (those three areas being where the family made our money).

 

[Sir Ollie]

I realise I will almost certainly come across as insufferably snobbish for saying this, but just finding a coat of arms with your surname on it doesn't mean its yours. Not that many people are actually armigerous - in the UK, at least.

Oh I agree you can easily find coat of arms on the Internet and when I first saw this I was amazed and didn't believe it was ours but I asked family members who have been studing our history for years and I got a tree dating back to the Doomsday book after that its a bit fuzzy.

 

[black lincon]

nope, according to my family history, which my dad has gone through, were an uninteresting bunch.

well, supposedly my dad found some letter referencing some princess, but it was very old and I'm part German so god only knows how many members of German royally are running around if you count all the little countries in the holy roman empire.

My dad did say something to me once that I always liked, "Don't live your life with regret. If all you ever do is look back you'll never spend any time thinking about the future."

 

[Trilby]

I realise I will almost certainly come across as insufferably snobbish for saying this, but just finding a coat of arms with your surname on it doesn't mean its yours. Not that many people are actually armigerous - in the UK, at least.

Oh I agree you can easily find coat of arms on the Internet and when I first saw this I was amazed and didn't believe it was ours but I asked family members who have been studing our history for years and I got a tree dating back to the Doomsday book after that its a bit fuzzy.

Oh gosh, sorry; I wasn't trying to specifically shoot down anyone posting here. Just issuing a general warning to those who get interested by this and go away and google only to return with a computer-generated monstrosity. It is awesome, though, when you find out something genuine and concrete.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

As far as I can tell, my family have no motto/ coat of arms/ whatever, but on my mother's side you can find a lot of coat of arms:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=lewis+coat+of+arms&btnG=Search+Images&aq=0&oq=lewis+Coa