Welcome to the Philippine Armorial

The Philippine Armorial is the public register and reference of personal and family coats of arms of all persons of Philippine heritage. We preserve, record and expand appreciation and knowledge of Philippine heraldry: a unique combination of Spanish and American influences with our own local symbolism. We hope to celebrate our heraldic contributions to the world, and inspire more Filipinos to adopt their own coats of arms.

An armorial is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms. (Wikipedia)

Philippine Armorial

Register your coat of arms on the Philippine Armorial

Everyone with a connection to the Philippines – Philippine citizens or residents as well as everyone of Philippine heritage – is welcome to register their arms with the Philippine Armorial. We record personal and family arms, badges and other heraldic devices, blazon, biographical and background information for permanent public reference. Please use the Registration request form, or contact us at philippinearmorial@gmail.com or on our Contact page. There is no fee for registration.

Our shield

philippine-armorial-shield-header

Our shield adopts the traditional Spanish shape, with vertical sides and a round bottom, reflecting the European colonization that brought heraldry to the Philippines. To honor the republican ideals of our time under American occupation, the shield is kept unadorned, without supporters or crest. At the heart of the shield is the letter “A” in traditional Baybayin script, which stands for Armorial. Along with the Philippine sun and stylized kalasag shield, it represents the heraldic heritage the Philippine Armorial aims to celebrate and promote.

Learn more

Join the Filipino Heraldry Society, the Philippine Heraldry and Vexillology and the Heraldry Guild of the Philippines on Facebook to learn and share more about heraldry in the Philippines.

The American College of Heraldry has an excellent introduction to heraldry and also provides registration services.

The American Heraldry Society is also an excellent introduction to heraldry, especially about American and republican traditions that influence Philippine practice today.

Watawat is a comprehensive resource on flags and other symbols of the Philippines from the pre-colonial period to the present.

The Coat of Arms Database is a collection of coats of arms of thousands of individuals, as described in various heraldic reference documents. If you are able to prove you are related to one of the individuals, you might be entitled to inherit and use their shield as well.

Copyrighted coats of arms are shared here as fair use for teaching purposes and comment. Learn more about fair use in the Philippines and the United States.

5 thoughts on “Welcome to the Philippine Armorial

    1. Good day Sir Jude – the primary influences are Spanish and American due to their colonial roles, but there are also indigenous symbolism as well as potential other sources due to historic trading and other connections, such as English. We welcome any submissions that reflect the rich diversity of heraldry in the Philippines!

      Like

  1. Thank you Sir, I just labeled the coat of arms of King Philip V of Spain that appeared on the 1734 Murillo Velarde map. You will find German, Spanish and arms from the Low countries. Will send it to you if it qualify here.

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s