coat of arms?

Question

Hathaway

Answer 1

Have a look at the link posted below
http://www.houseofnames.com/fc.asp?sId=&s=Hathaway
hope it helps.

Answer 2

There is no such thing as a Family Coat of Arms. They are granted to individuels. The COAs carrys on down the the family through the first born male child. This is a very simple !!!!!!! explaination of a complex subject.

Answer 3

BEWARE OF COAT OF ARMS PEDDLERS

For a person to display a coat of arms just because it has their surname, it is like putting up a picture of a famous person with their surname and claiming him as their ancestor whether they know he is or not.

There are no laws in the U. S. regarding heraldry. There are companies that take advantage of that. They are all over the internet.

Many coats of arms have the same name.
There are about 200 with the surname Lewis. It's a name that could be of Welsh origin from the name Llewellyn or French Huguenot or Norman origin and their name was changed from Louis to Lewis when they settled in English speaking countries.

Not every with the surname Lewis is any way related to any of the 200, much less be a direct descendant.

These peddlers who sell them will only have one for any surname as they know they that most people are not aware of the rules of heraldy.

There was a time people did not have surnames. William son of John, if he could write, signed his name William son of John.
Eventually sons of guys named John became Johnson.

Some took their names from their occupation, like miller, baker, fisher, clark(clerk), smith, cooper etc.

Some were habitational names. They took their names from the town, shire, village, they came from the river, bridge, mound, swamp, church they lived close to. Hathaway usually meant someone who lived close to a path across a heath and there was probably more than one person who met that description and not necessarily related. It can also come from the female name, Hedwig.

I have Overtons in my family. It simply means over town. You can imagine how many people lived over a town that took the name Overton. Sam that lived on a hill became Sam Hill but there were other people living on a hill that took the name Hill.

If you visit someone and they have a coat of arms on the wall in their den, most likely they are not entitled to it or any way related to the person who was granted the coat of arms.

They were granted to individuals who passed them on to their sons.

Now, if you really want one you can have your own designed and made. At least you can honestly say it is yours and you're not pretending it belongs to you.

Answer 4

A coat of arms is given to an individual, not a family!

Answer 5

http://www.allfamilycrests.com/h/hathaway-family-crest-coat-of-arms.shtml