Canting arms

Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus.

The expression derives from the latin cantare (to sing). French heralds used the term armes parlantes ("talking arms"), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial allusions require research for elucidation because of changes in language and dialect that have occurred over the past millennium.

Canting arms – some in the form of rebuses – are quite common in German civic heraldry. They have also been increasingly used in the 20th century among the British royal family. When the visual representation is expressed through a rebus, this is sometimes called a rebus coat of arms. An in-joke among the Society for Creative Anachronism heralds is the pun, "Heralds don't pun; they cant."

Personal coats of arms
A famous example of canting arms are those of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's paternal family, the Bowes-Lyon family. The arms (pictured below) contain the bows and blue lions that make up the arms of the Bowes and Lyon families.

Municipal coats of arms
Municipal coats of arms which interpret the town's name in rebus form are also called canting. Here are a few examples.