Explain your city's seal, coat of arms, or flag

[BuckyRea]

Someone in your current hometown, perhaps many years ago, spent the time to sit down and design an iconic representation of what represents the vitality, purpose, or values of your community. Google up that sucker, post it here, and tell us what it all means.

Are these icons, heraldries, or symbols accurate or anachronistic? Do they affect or even apply to your life, or is it all just irrelevant poppycock?

Here's the official seal of the City of Houston Texas:

When they made that seal in 1840, there wasn't a train track coming to Houston. There wasn't even a plan for a train track to come here: it was entirely aspirational. That's John Deere's original steel plow below the train, the plow that tamed the stubbon prairie sod of the Mississippi basin.

The inner circle is lined with cotton puffs, although there was little cotton being planted in the region yet--again, they had big plans. The cording around the outer circle may be hempen rope (a minor crop at the time) or it may just be designed thus to look purty. One historian refers to this design as "masterful hucksterism" for making it seem like Houston was already destined for greatness--a greatness it only secured when Galveston got clobbered by a killer hurricane 60 years later and the now-small city of Beaumont, Texas, refused to let disgusting little oil men dirty up their downtown in the early 1900s.

 

[Ajidica]

My cities symbol is just an oak tree.
Pretty boring.

However, the Gopher became a mascot of Minnesota because this senator tacked on an ammendment to a gopher-eradication bill that basicaly gave railroads free reign in the state. So, a political cartoon quickly appeared showing a gopher pulling a train.
Far more interesting.

 

[ParkCungHee]

It's a dutch guy, trading with a Lenape Guy, barrels of stuff for beavers. The windmill is there because the dutch like to put that on everything, even city seals.
It's kind of their thing.

 

[Dachs]

Called the Rennfähnlein, which basically means 'the running banner'. Not entirely sure why they picked this scheme in particular - it's either eighth-century vintage or fourteenth-century vintage, depending on who you ask. Appears in the lower left of the Franconian arms:

 

[LightSpectra]

"Das Wappen der Wien"

From Wikipedia: "Die ältesten Siegel der Stadt zeigen nur einen Adler. Der Adler ist wahrscheinlich abgeleitet vom Wappen der Babenberger Herzöge von Österreich. Das älteste Siegel der Stadt hängt an einem Dokument aus dem Jahre 1228. Es ist aber nicht eindeutig, ob die Stadt bereits 1228 wirklich diese Siegel verwendete. Ein weiteres Siegel hängt an einem Dokument aus dem Jahre 1239, ein anderes aus dem Jahre 1281. Die Stadt verwendete kleinere Kontra- und Geheimsiegel mit dem Adler bis in das 16. Jahrhundert."

My (likely terrible) translation: The oldest seal of the city shows only an eagle. The eagle is probably derived from the Wappen (coat of arms, crest, or insignia) of the Babenberg (a dynasty that ruled Austria prior to the Habsburgs) Duke of Austria. The older seal of the city was placed on a ducument from 1228; but it is not really clear whether the city already used the seal in 1228. A more detailed seal was placed on a document from 1239, another on 1281. The city applied the small shield with the eagle until the 16th century.

 

[Lord of Elves]

It's an oak tree.

 

[madviking]

My birth place:

Sea anchor, river anchor, golden specter, crown, double eagle staffs.

 

[sophie]

It depicts the hill El Toro that serves as the major landmark for our town.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Coat of arms:

And flag:

And county seal:

 

[ZeletDude]

Where I was born

Where I live.

 

[Aquila SPQR]

Not my city's, but my gmina's (municipality):

On the top - yellow ribbon symbolize Narew river which is the northern border of the gmina. Below it there are two churches - the oldest and nowadays non-existent churches in gmina - first built in XI century and second built in 1387. These two churches are connected with another ribbon which symbolizes integrity of the gmina. On top of it there is an oak's leaf - symbol of gmina's beautiful nature. Churches and ribbon also create a letter "W" which is the first letter of gmina's name - Wieliszew.

 

[Tee Kay]

More info here.

To be honest, I've seen it perhaps once, or twice, and it was so long ago I can't remember exactly where or what it looks like until I search for it for this thread. And there it was, a tailless kangaroo (well, the upper half of a kangaroo, anyway. Let's say it's tailless).

More common is the city logo, which, while rather boring, was recently changed to this atrocious "M". IMO, coat of arms > crappy logo, though I'm the sort of person who likes old-fashioned stuff.

Melbourne logo:

Edit: so, you want details...

Originally the Coat of Arms in 1842 looks like this:

The Cross of St George and Royal Crown declare the new town's allegiance to Great Britain. The sheep (later changed to fleece), bull and whale represent the colony's main exports at the time - wool, tallow and whale oil - and the ship depicts means of communication and transport with the outside world. The kangaroo stands for Australia. The motto is Vires Acquirit Eundo, "We gather strength as we go".

The Coat of Arms was modified in 1940. Supporters - the two lions - were added, adapted from the arms of Lord Melbourne, the city's namesake. The whale and cattle symbols switched places, so the two water-based symbols are on the same level, and the gold crown was added to the base of the kangaroo to symbolize the municipal government.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Too many people are just posting seals without explaining them. What's the point?

 

[W|M]

1573 was probably when the city was founded (Back then, named Vila de São Lourenço dos Índios, which is Village of Saint Lawrence of the Indians in Portuguese). 1819 was when King João VI of Portugal decreed its emancipation from Rio de Janeiro, and gave it a new name: Vila Real da Praia Grande (Royal Village of Long Beach). Vila Real da Praia Grande was officially renamed to Niterói on March 6, 1835 after the Tupi Nictheroy (hidden waters). This old spelling persisted until the mid-20th century, when the current spelling - Niterói - was adopted.

I'm guessing that the water and rock on the bottom symbolize the coastline, and the rocks where Santa Cruz are, or the rocks where the MAC is. The crown to the top-left of that probably comes back from the times when Brazil was an Empire, and symbolizes loyalty to the crown, as does the symbol above it, though that also hankers to the days of rule by the natives who founded the city (see the arrows).

To the right of that, I don't know what IHS means, though the cross symbolizes Christianity (Brazil and Portugal have always been devout, Catholic countries), and the arrows at the bottom probably also represent the Amerindians. I have no idea what the symbol below that came from, though.

The crown and little castles on top represents royalty and loyalty to the crown, of course.

 

[Arakhor]

IHS are the first three letters of Jesus' name in Greek: Ίησους, Latinized to IHSOVS.

Don't they teach you anything at Catholic schools these days?

 

[MCdread]

1573 was probably when the city was founded (Back then, named Vila de São Lourenço dos Índios, which is Village of Saint Lawrence of the Indians in Portuguese). 1819 was when King João VI of Portugal decreed its emancipation from Rio de Janeiro, and gave it a new name: Vila Real da Praia Grande (Royal Village of Long Beach). Vila Real da Praia Grande was officially renamed to Niterói on March 6, 1835 after the Tupi Nictheroy (hidden waters). This old spelling persisted until the mid-20th century, when the current spelling - Niterói - was adopted.

I'm guessing that the water and rock on the bottom symbolize the coastline, and the rocks where Santa Cruz are, or the rocks where the MAC is. The crown to the top-left of that probably comes back from the times when Brazil was an Empire, and symbolizes loyalty to the crown, as does the symbol above it, though that also hankers to the days of rule by the natives who founded the city (see the arrows).

To the right of that, I don't know what IHS means, though the cross symbolizes Christianity (Brazil and Portugal have always been devout, Catholic countries), and the arrows at the bottom probably also represent the Amerindians. I have no idea what the symbol below that came from, though.

The crown and little castles on top represents royalty and loyalty to the crown, of course.

IHS is an abbreviation of the name of Jesus.

The crown with the castle towers at the top means that it is a seat of local government, and a city at that (not a town or a village) because it has 5 towers. Assuming that if follows directly from portuguese heraldic rules of course.

 

[Skwink]

Homage to Kurt Cobain. He was born here.

This is really all we got in terms of a sign/seal/flag.

 

[Arwon]

This is the coat of arms of Canberra, dating from when it was founded in 1927. It's also the coat of arms of the Australian Capital Territory, and was also used on the old HMAS Canberra which sunk in 1942 (the USS Canberra was anmed for that ship).

From wikipedia:

-"The crown symbolises Royal authority;
-The mace symbolises the Parliament of Australia;
-The sword symbolises the Australian Defence Force;
-The castle has three towers, symbolise the three branches of government (executive, legislature and judiciary);
-The white rose is the badge of the Duke of York who opened the old Parliament of Australia building in 1927, and who would later be crowned as King George VI of the United Kingdom.
-The crowned portcullis again symbolises the parliament, this being the traditional symbol of the Palace of Westminster (which houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom);
-Behind the portcullis is a tree, symbolises Canberra's nickname "The Bush Capital";
-The supporters are the Australian black swan, representing the Australian Aborigines, and the European white swan, representing the white settlers.
-In the early 1930s the motto "Pro Rege, Lege et Grege", which was mistakenly believed to mean "For the King, the Law and the People" was used by the FCC. However when it was pointed out in 1935 that it actually meant "For the King, the Law and the mob", the English version was unofficially adopted."

It's all absurdly wanky, but the black and white swan representing Aborigines and white people is particularly lolsome.

The ACT flag also features something similar:

 

[Arakhor]

Technically, of course, George VI was also King of Australia.

 

[The Yankee]

My hometown, New York City:

The tricolor consists of the old colors of the Netherlands, who originally settled the area as New Amsterdam and several other colonies in the area prior to its seizure by the English.

Edit: The seal was noted above by ParkCungHee, but it also made its way onto the city flag.

As for the seal itself, I knew about the year, when the colony was settled. But I'm going to take some liberties from Wikipedia for the seal.

Bald Eagle: The symbol of the United States of America.
Native American: The original inhabitants of the area.
Seaman: Symbolizes the colonisers of the area.
Beaver: Symbolizes the WIC; the Dutch West India Company, which was the first company in New York (called Nieuw Amsterdam back then).
Windmill: Remembers the Dutch history of the city and the prosperous industry of milling flour.
Flour barrels: The industry.
1625: The year in which the city of Nieuw Amsterdam was founded by the Dutch.

This flag is pretty recent, having been adopted in 1977. This flag, with a redesigned seal, went further into the Dutch roots to note the settlement by them, and not when the area became known as New York.

It's a fairly prominent flag, as that Wikipedia article noted. Not only is it flown at every government building, but it's also featured in the public schools along with the state and federal flags, and in all sorts of places such as the parks.

It's become a nice symbol of home, personally.

My home borough, Brooklyn, also has a flag.

According to this website, which stated it was quoted from Wikipedia, although I will not track down the page:

Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents. If the borough were a separate city, it would be the fourth-largest city in the United States.


Brooklyn's official motto is Een Draght Mackt Maght. Written in the (old) Dutch language, it is inspired by the motto of the United Dutch Provinces and translated as "In Unity There is Strength." The motto is displayed on the borough seal and flag, which also feature a young robed woman bearing fasces, a traditional emblem of republicanism. Brooklyn's official colors are blue and gold.