|
Greetings,
Here's the information we found on your name "Thomas de Courcy" and your arms, which are blazoned as "Quarterly Or and sable, a Maltese cross between two thistles in bend sable and two fleur-de-lis in bend sinsiter Or."
Your name is, as you expected, quite appropriate for your culture. "Thomas" was a common name in France, and "Courcy" is a place which existed in period. (1) "de Courcy" would have been written as two distinct words and understood to mean "from the town of Courcy." The practice of combining these names together is post-period.
We do suggest some modifications to your arms. You've made a good start; the Maltese cross is quite appropriate to your period. We recommend that you drop the thistles and fleurs-de-lys, since a single coat of arms which uses three objects is unknown in early heraldry and is rare even in the 14th century. Furthermore, national symbols weren't used in medieval heraldry. Irish families did not add harps to their arms, nor Scotsmen thistles, nor Frenchmen fleurs-de-lis, in an effort to show who they were. It is probable that these symbols were not even considered to _be_ national symbols by medieval folk, the way they are in the modern world. A more historically accurate way to signify nationality in armory is to examine the style of arms from your persona's country. Different nations developed variations in heraldic style, and by using design elements that were especially common in (for example) Scotland, you can create arms that are distinctively Scottish. We can help you develop specifically Scottish or French arms.
If you want to keep something close to your original design, the simplified version of your design, without the thistles and fleurs-de-lys, is appropriate for most European cultures in your period, and does not conflict with any registered SCA arms. It is blazoned "Quarterly Or and sable, a Maltese cross counterchanged."
Arval D'Espas Nord, Rouland Carre, Zenobia Naphtali, Margaret Makafee, Solveig Throndarsdottir, and Pedro de Alcazar contributed to this letter.
We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.
In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel
(1) Dauzat, Albert, Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France, Libraire Larousse, Paris, 1987.