Are Cants Puns or a Rebus ??

Cants by any other name are still puns. Basically they’re all the same thing ~ a play on words that alludes to the owner’s name on a coat-of-arms, a deed performed, a location, the family motto, or a charge (symbol) within a coat of arms.

The meaning may be direct, so as to inform illiterates of the meaning. The meaning may also be deliberately concealed, revealed only those ‘in the know’. Meanings were also hidden to puzzle and amuse the viewer.

A pun is a humorous play on words. A cant is a heraldic word for a pun.

A rebus is a puzzle where you decode a message consisting of pictures that represent syllables and words. In Latin rebus means word puzzle. An example is H + the picture of an ear, which when put together becomes hear or here.

Sometimes musical notes on a scale were used, with the notes spelling out the puzzle.

The Salmon was a very popular fish in the rivers of Scotland and in heraldry. Cants played the name or location, as the symbol for towns such as Kingston-on-Thames, Peebles on the Tweed, Lanark on the Clyde, and Glasgow.

Here’s some found while researching heraldry ~

• Acorn ~ see Oak
  
  
• Alsager, Askers ~ see Water Lizard
  
  
• Apple
  
  Image courtesy FCIT
  
  
  Image courtesy Heraldry WS
  
  
• Arm ~ Armstrong, Arm and Hammer Baking Soda
  
  
  Image courtesy Heraldry WS
  
  
• Ash ~ Ashcroft
  
  
  Image courtesy Heraldry WS
  
  
• Asp ~ Aspendall [three asps, very like serpents and snakes, but larger]
  
  
• Ass ~ Ashton
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry WS
  
  
• Bat ~ Batiscombe, Bascom
  
  
  Image courtesy Heraldry WS
  
  
• Bear ~ Beer
  
  
  Image courtesy Heraldry WS
  
  
• Bee ~ Beeston
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  Christopher Beeston (c. 1570 to 1638), as an actor performed in plays written by Thomas Heywood, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare. His most worthy contributions were as a theatrical impresario and owner of The Phoenix. Originally called The Cockfight, Beeston revamped a cockfight ring. This became the first theatre on Drury Lane. His troupe was originally called ‘The Queens Men’. After Queen Anne died in 1619, he renamed his troupe ‘Beeston’s Boys’.

  The community of Beeston, in Nottinghamshire, England, has black and yellow litter containers, with a bee symbol on each.The Beeston arms display six bees.

• Bubble ~ Bubbleward
  
  
  Image courtesy James Parker
  
  The South Sea Bubble, or first great stock-market crash in 1720 may contributed to the bubble as a symbol of heraldry.
  
  
• Burn , Brand ~ brand means to burn, thus cooking pot
  
  
  Image courtesy Heraldry SA
  
  
• Camel ~ Calmels, Calmels d’ Artensac, Calmels d’ Lestiez, Camel, Georges Camle, Cammel, orCamelford, as a camel passing through a ford
  
  
• Castle
  
  Castleton
  
  
  Image courtesy James Parker
  
  Oldcastle
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  
• Cattle
  
  Bull ~ Turnbull of Scotland, Bulleine (the Anne Boleyn family), Trumbull, Bullock
  
  Calf ~ Sir Hugh de Calvelegh
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  
• Chickens
  
  Capon ~ Kapenhurst
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  Hen ~ Henshaugh
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  Cock ~ Cockayne, Alcock
  
  
  Image courtesy James Parker
  
  
  Image courtesy Heraldry WS
  
  
• Hazel Nut ~ Haselau
  
  
  Haselau Wappen and hazel nut image courtesy Wikipedia
  
  
• Dolphin ~ Used as a pun for names, such as Fish, Fisher, Fyshar.
  
  
• Eagle ~ signifies a man of action, speedy in apprehension, alertness, quick-witted, strength, bravery, ever more occupied in high and weighty affairs, of lofty or noble spirit, ingenious, judicious in matters of ambiguity, "True magnanimity and strength of mind". One example is Eglesfield, the Founder of Queen’s College in 1340.
  
  
• Ear ~ the family name Audice, which derives from the same base word as audio, or the ear, has a coat of arms that features 3 hind’s ears
  
  
• Feathers and Gunstone ~ Fetherston’s ostrich feathers and gun-stone
  
  
• Fox, also known as Tod, Todd, Edward Fox of Hereford, c. 1535
  
  
• Fig ~ somewhere there is a family with the last name of Figon. They are in France, with the adaptation, Figone, in California.
  
  
  Image courtesy New Gaso
  
  
• Grain ~ the name Graundorge derives from grain d’orge or barley. Among the cants, the Graundorge family added wheat in their arms.
  
  
• Hank of Cotton ~ Cotton
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  
• Herring ~ did the Herrings at one time fish for herring?
  
  
  Image courtesy James Parker
  
  
• Holly ~ Hollinworth
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  
• Hunting Horn ~ the Hunter family displays 3 hunting horns
  
  
  Image courtesy Wikipedia
  
  
• Lamb ~ Evans is Welsh for John. So a Holy Lamb alludes to John the Baptist, hence the Pascal Lamb is on their arms.
  
  Pascal and Paschal families ~ the Paschal or Holy Lamb
  
  
  Image courtesy James Parker
  
  
• Lucy, de Lucy
  
  
  Image courtesy Charles Boutell
  
  
• Manatee ~ Manati, Puerto Rico
  
  
  Manati arms and manatee image courtesy Wikipedia
  
  
• Moline Cross ~ Molineux
  
  
• Moor ~ More
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  
• Oak ~ most popular among the cants and charges of heraldry
  
  Acorn ~ Severoke, Lord Mayor of London in 1418 had 7 acorns laid out 2-3-2
  
  Oak Sprouting ~ the Littlewood family displays a sprouting oak sapling in their coat of arms.
  
  
  Image courtesy Armorial Register
  
  
• Olive ~ Oliveira
  
  
  Oliveira arms image courtesy New Gaso
  
  
• Orange, Oranger ~ Orange Province of France
  
  
  Oranger Province arms image courtesy Wikipedia
  
  
• Ox ~ Oxford
  
  
  Image courtesy Weebsite
  
  
• Pine ~ MacAlpine
  
  
  Image courtesy Heraldry WS
  
  
• Raven ~ Carbeaux Noir Corbet, Corbeht, Corbett, Corbyn, Crowmer, Dawson and one of their cants
  
  
  Image courtesy James Parker
  
  Croft ~ a small piece of enclosed land, or small field, used for tillage or pasture, often rented for generations
  
  
  Ravenscroft arms image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  
• Rooks ~ Rokeby, Rokes
  
  
• Shell ~ Shelley
  
  
  Image courtesy FCIT
  
  
• Spear ~ Nicholas Breakspeare, better known as Pope Adrian IV, bore a broken spear on his arms

  Shakespeare
  
  

  
  Image courtesy Charles Boutell
  
  
• Stafford Knot ~ the Henry Stafford pennant. Which came first, the charge on Stafford’s heraldry or a knot named Stafford, used by Henry Stafford?
  
  
  Image courtesy Charles Boutell
  
  
• Staple ~ Stapleton
  
  
  Image courtesy Charles Boutell
  
  
• Swallow ~ Hirondelles, Arundel
  
  
  Swallow image courtesy Somewhere in Tyme
  
  
• Sea Swallow ~ Swale
  
  Image courtesy Civic Heraldry SA
  
  
• Talbot ~ the talbot was a dog of quick and eager pursuit, in heraldry symbolizing courage, vigilance and loyal fidelity. John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury was an important military commander in England’s 100 Year War. Near the end of his life, the king referred to him as ‘Talbott, our good dogge’, alluding to his family crest and his characteristics.
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  

• Trivet ~ Tryvette
  
  
  Image courtesy James Parker
  
  
• Trout, Trowt ~ Troutbeck and Trowtbeck must have lived by a trout stream, called a beck in Scotland
  
  
  Image courtesy James Parker
  
  
• Trumpet ~ to trump the Trumpingtons
  
  
  Image courtesy Charles Boutell
  
  
• Water Lizard ~ Alsager, Askers
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry
  
  
• Willow ~ Salis, Salix, Salford, Sallow, Osier, Wand for the branches, and Willis all use willow cants.
  
  Willis, Dean of Worcester in 1596 displays 3 willow trees, while the Count de Salis displays a salix
  
  
  Salford badge courtesy Civic Heraldry SA
  
  
• Wren ~ Wren, Wrenbury, Wrenne
  
  
  Image courtesy Cheshire Heraldry SA
  
  

One more that needs a page of it’s own to adequately explain the pun is that of Brigetteneau and the tale of the Heraldic Red Tongue.

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