Canting arms are heraldry bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus.
The expression derives from the latin cantare (to sing).
French heralds used the term armes parlantes (), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial allusions require research for elucidation because of changes in language and dialect that have occurred over the past millennium.
Canting arms – some in the form of rebuses – are quite common in German civic heraldry. They have also been increasingly used in the 20th century among the British royal family. When the visual representation is expressed through a rebus, this is sometimes called a rebus coat of arms.
An in-joke among the Society for Creative Anachronism heralds is the pun, "Heralds don't pun; they cant."[ Cites 72 historical examples of canting arms, as well as SCA usage.]
Examples of canting arms
Personal coats of arms
A famous example of canting arms are those of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's paternal family, the Bowes-Lyon family. The arms (pictured below) contain the bows and blue lions that make up the arms of the Bowes and Lyon families.
File:Bowes-Lyon Arms.svg|Bowes-Lyon: bows and
File:Arms of Beatrice of York.svg|Princess Beatrice of York: Beatrice = bee thrice = three
File:Rosetti arms.svg|Rosetti family: three roses
File:Quintin Hogg Arms.svg|Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone: three Pig's heads
File:Cokborgne blason.png|Cockburn: three red Rooster
File:Coat of Arms of John Caspar Crowninshield.svg|Crowninshield family: crown in shield
File:Blason-argent-3-jumelles-gueules.svg|De Barry family: three bars gemelles
File:Costa.png|Coat of arms of the head of the Portuguese Costa family: costa means "rib" in Latin and Portuguese
File:Coat of Arms of Dwight Eisenhower.svg|President Dwight D. Eisenhower: a blacksmith's anvil, as Eisenhauer is German language for "iron-hewer"
File:Flag of Maryland.svg|alt=Flag of Maryland, originally the arms of George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, whose mother's maiden name was Crossland; the latter's arms shows a cross.|Flag of Maryland, originally the arms of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, whose mother's maiden name was Crossland; the latter's arms shows a cross.
Municipal coats of arms
Municipal coats of arms which interpret the town's name in rebus form are also called canting. Here are a few examples.
![(1954): Bär = bear]]: man a cor = hand with heart, in Catalan language]] (1829): Torre = tower, vieja = old]]: Kryvyi = crooked, Rih = horn, in Ukrainian]]]]: Wolf's Castle]], an extremely rare tincture in heraldry]]: Schaf = sheep, Haus = house]]: Schatten = shadow, Dorf = village]] feature pears, Birn in German]] feature an eagle ()]] city of Kuching features a cat on its municipal coat of arms, kuc(h)ing being the Malay language word for cat]] === Ecclesiastical coats of arms === are a play on the name of the see, the city of Lansing, Michigan.]], colloquially called a buffalo, carrying a banner of the Cross of St. George (analogous to the heraldic Lamb of God), referencing the name of city in which the see is based, Buffalo, New York.]] See also Japanese rebus monogram Notes Sources Winifred Hall: Canting and Allusive Arms of England and Wales. 1966. External links Canting arms (Britannica) Canting arms – 100 armes parlantes (YouTube) Categories: Heraldry](http://www.upcscavenger.com/wiki/Kontiolahti.vaakuna.svg/){kind=link}
![: man a cor = hand with heart, in Catalan language]] (1829): Torre = tower, vieja = old]]: Kryvyi = crooked, Rih = horn, in Ukrainian]]]]: Wolf's Castle]], an extremely rare tincture in heraldry]]: Schaf = sheep, Haus = house]]: Schatten = shadow, Dorf = village]] feature pears, Birn in German]] feature an eagle ()]] city of Kuching features a cat on its municipal coat of arms, kuc(h)ing being the Malay language word for cat]]](http://www.upcscavenger.com/wiki/CHE Bern COA.svg/){kind=link}