You have probably seen a “Smith family crest” on a mug, a plaque or a website. The honest answer is that there is no single Smith family crest.
Coats of arms were granted to and recorded for individuals, and then passed to their descendants. Smith is one of the most common surnames in the English-speaking world, so many unrelated Smiths ended up with many different coats of arms. Having the surname does not give you a coat of arms, and no one design stands for all Smiths. The rec.heraldry FAQ puts it plainly: there are no “Smith arms”.
That is not a dead end. This page shows you what real Smith arms look like, where the name comes from, and how to make a coat of arms that is actually yours.
Where the name Smith comes from
Smith is an occupational surname. It comes from the Old English smið, meaning one who works in metal, and it was already in use in Anglo-Saxon times. The earliest record usually quoted is Ecceard Smith of County Durham in 975 (Wikipedia).
That is also why there is no single family behind it. Every village needed a smith, so the same name grew up in thousands of places at once. Later waves added more: Scottish and Irish Smiths, and people whose own names (Schmidt, for example) were changed to Smith on arrival in America.
You will also meet Smyth, Smythe, Blacksmith, Goldsmith, Arrowsmith and many more. They share the trade, not necessarily the ancestry.
Real Smith arms, recorded in 1884
Burke’s General Armory (1884) lists arms by surname, and its Smith section runs for pages. Each entry names a place or a person, because each coat belongs to one family line. Here are five, taken from the book’s text. Two are redrawn below from their blazon (the official wording) with our own heraldry engine, so you can see what a few lines of blazon become.
All five, with where they appear in Burke (abbreviations written out):
- Smith of Abingdon, Berkshire, and London (Visitation of London, 1634 and 1638). Per chevron argent and sable, three anvils counterchanged. The crest is an ostrich’s head holding a horseshoe. The anvils are the one design here that plainly nods to the trade. (p. 936)
- Smith of Bedfordshire. Gules, a chevron between three griffins segreant or, on a chief of the last three fleurs-de-lis of the first. (p. 936)
- Smith of Berkshire, granted 21 April 1671 to Edward Smith of Old Windsor and his brothers. Or, three martlets purpure. (p. 936)
- Smith of Tring Park, Hertfordshire (baronet). Ermine, a saltire azure charged with an escallop or, in base a dolphin naiant embowed of the second. Motto: Marti et ingenio. (p. 935)
- Smith of Eardiston, Worcestershire (baronet). Sable, a cross flory or, on a chief engrailed ermine a demi lion issuant between two cross crosslets gules. (p. 935)
Page numbers are those of the printed pages as they appear in the Internet Archive text. These are recorded arms of those families, shown to illustrate the point. They are not yours, and we are not offering them as yours. Notice how little they have in common: a different design for nearly every Smith.
Modern registers show the same picture. The Canadian Heraldic Authority’s public register lists several individual Smiths, among them Marc Edward Smith (1995) and David-William Smith (2012). Each has their own arms, and the register does not allow its emblems to be copied without consent, so we only point to it.
Why a Smith family crest from a website is not “yours”
Sites that sell “your Smith family crest” usually show one design for the surname. Since no such design exists, what you are shown is either someone else’s arms or a generic shield with the name attached. We would rather tell you that now than after you have paid for a plaque.
What you can do instead:
- Trace your line. If you can link your family to a recorded Smith, those arms may be yours by descent. The heraldry FAQ above explains why this is a genealogy question.
- Apply for a grant, where an official authority exists, such as the College of Arms in England or the Court of the Lord Lyon in Scotland.
- Design your own. For a family keepsake, a gift, a school project or a printed shield, you do not need anyone’s permission to create a new design.
Design a Smith coat of arms of your own
A good way to start is with the trade the name records. An anvil, a hammer, a flame or a horseshoe all say “Smith” without borrowing another family’s coat. Add colors you like, a motto you wrote, and the shield is yours.
The editor writes the blazon for you as you build, checks the heraldic color rule (never color on color, or metal on metal), and lets you download a print-ready file when you are happy.
If you want to understand the symbols first, start with the lion, the most common animal on any shield.
Sources
Each one opened and checked on November 11, 2026.
- rec.heraldry FAQ, Is there a coat of arms for my surname (heraldica.org)
- Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales (1884), Internet Archive
- Burke's General Armory 1884, full OCR text (Internet Archive)
- Smith (surname), Wikipedia
- Canadian Heraldic Authority, Public Register of Arms
- Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909), Project Gutenberg
Questions people ask
What does the Smith family crest mean?
It depends which Smith arms you mean, because there are many. The shapes on each one were chosen by the person who first bore them, so they carry that family's meaning, not the surname's. The Smiths in Burke's 1884 armory used anvils, griffins, martlets (small heraldic birds) and dolphins. Only the anvils point at the trade, and nothing says one design speaks for every Smith.
What is the Smith family motto?
There isn't one for the whole surname. Mottoes belong to individual coats of arms, and Burke records different ones for different Smiths: Marti et ingenio (Tring Park), Non deficit alter (Aspley House, Bedfordshire) and In Deo fides (a Smith of Bombay) among them. A motto is also optional, and a Smith without recorded arms has none to inherit.
Where did the Smith family originate?
Smith is an English occupational name, from the Old English smið, one who works in metal. It was in use before inherited surnames existed: a man called Ecceard Smith of County Durham is recorded in 975. Because so many people worked as smiths in so many places, Smiths did not all descend from one family.
Is Smith a Viking name?
Not as such. The English surname comes from the Old English word for a metalworker. The word itself is Germanic, so close relatives exist in Norse and German (Schmidt among them), but we did not find a source that treats the English surname Smith as a Viking name.
Is Smith a rare last name?
The opposite. Smith is the most common surname in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the fifth most common in Ireland. The 2010 US census counted 2,442,977 Americans named Smith.
How old is the name Smith?
Older than inherited surnames in England. The earliest record cited for it is Ecceard Smith of County Durham in 975. Many Smiths today also come from other names that were shortened or translated to Smith, such as the German Schmidt.
What is the Smith family coat of arms in Ireland?
There is no single Irish Smith coat of arms either. The same rule applies there: arms belong to one person and their descendants, not to everyone who shares a surname.
Can I use a Smith coat of arms I found online?
You can enjoy it, and nothing stops you drawing it for yourself, but it was recorded for a specific person. Unless you can trace your line to them, it is not yours in the way the sellers of Smith family crest plaques suggest. A coat of arms you design for yourself is.