The Villalobos Family Crest

Heraldry, crest, shield, coat-of-arms, blazons -- all refer more or less to the means by which European families with the same last name could identify themselves as uniquely "us" rather than anonymously "them."

The Villalobos shield, shown here, displays two wolves, one above the other, facing in the same direction.

Heraldry, most popular in the eleventh through sixteenth centuries in western Europe, was never a precise science. It usually began with a drawing by an artist based on the written or spoken description by a nobleman who wanted a family coat-of-arms.

For instance, a man might want to show two golden lions fighting a white eagle on a background of dark blue. Based on this, the artist would draw his interpretation.

Family crests -- whether from England, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, Germany or Italy -- were used by the nobility and landed gentry of each country.

Over the last two centuries, heraldry has steadily become less significant and less meaningful. Most people of European descent today have no idea if they have a family crest, or what it might look like. ...And most people don't care.

Still, heraldry can be interesting for those of us who have a familial connection -- no matter how distantly removed -- to any of the western European nations. The coat-of-arms or shield by which your last name was once recognized can be a source of pride or, at the very least, a conversation starter.

In case you're thinking the Villalobos crest is just something that was recently made up, here are some of the sources that were researched in order to locate this shield, which dates back to the early 1200s:

• The Encyclopaedia Heraldica, 1828, by William Berry for the College of Arms;, a late 19th century compilation of about 130,000 blazons of European Families by Johan Baptiste Rietstap of the Netherlands;
• A Complete Body of Heraldry by Josseph Edmondson in 1780; and, lastly and most significantly,
• Diccionario de Heraldica by J.A. Schnieper, a resource for Spanish heraldry.

If your last name is Mendoza, Aragon, Vega, Soria, etc., you might consider looking for your own family's shield/coat-of-arms.

It makes for some interesting conversation.

And is today's song from YouTube: Matt Monro - I Will Wait For you