The particle is part of the name
A particle is the small word before a house name: von, de, di, van. It often means of or from. Each region has its own habits:
- German zu marked the family seat, and von und zu means both owner and resident of it.
- French d' and Italian de' keep an apostrophe with no space: d'Harcourt, de' Pazzi.
- Czech z or ze comes before a place name, as in z Rozmberka. Hungarian estate markers also come first, as in széki Teleki.
- Dutch van der is not a sign of rank by itself: van der Meer was a common surname that some patrician families also carried.
Real, real-sounding, or made up
A badge shows the kind of each house: a real place name, a real surname, or an invented compound. Invented houses such as de Valombre (valley of shadow) are built from real French words. They are safe if you do not want a real family in your book.
Origin debated marks a house whose meaning is uncertain, like van Egmond. Russian houses also show female forms: Volkonsky becomes Volkonskaya, and Golitsyn becomes Golitsyna.
The crest in plain words
Each house gets a blazon, the written description of a shield. Gules, a griffin Or means a red field with a gold griffin. The tinctures are: Or is gold, Argent is silver, Gules is red, Azure is blue, Sable is black, Vert is green and Purpure is purple.
If you draw the shield yourself, a classic rule says to avoid metal on metal and colour on colour. See also the knight orders and medieval names.