Coat of Arms & Family Crest Details
J. B. Rietstap, Armorial Général, Gouda: G. B. van Goor Zonen, 1884–87
Blazon (the actual original written record)“D'arg. au lion échiq. d'or et de gu.”
A record of documented arms, meaning and origin, researched for the Serling family of Denmark.
J. B. Rietstap, Armorial Général, Gouda: G. B. van Goor Zonen, 1884–87
Blazon (the actual original written record)“D'arg. au lion échiq. d'or et de gu.”

The Serling arms were recorded in Denmark, c. 1722.
Arms such as these were typically recorded in Sjaælland.
Zealand held the Danish court, the crown's offices and Copenhagen itself. Families who served the king kept estates within reach of it, and royal service was the ordinary route to a coat of arms.
This is where the arms were entered in the register. Families often moved to other parts of the country, so the same name can turn up in more than one region.
Danish heraldry during this period was closely tied to noble status and royal favor rather than being open to all citizens. Arms were typically granted by the monarch to individuals, and these symbols were then shared by all members of the noble house. If a family line died out, the right to use those specific arms ended with them.
The family name Serling traces its documented roots to the island of Sjælland in Denmark, where records confirm the presence of family members as early as 1722. During this period, the name was likely tied to the local agricultural or craft-based communities that defined the rural landscape of the Danish islands. In the eighteenth century, surnames in this region were often fluid and frequently derived from a person’s occupation, a specific geographic feature, or a patronymic system that identified a child by their father’s first name. The survival of the Serling name in parish registers from this era suggests that the family was well-established within the local church structure, which served as the primary method for tracking births, marriages, and deaths in pre-modern Denmark. As the family moved through the generations, the name became a permanent identifier that linked them to the social and economic shifts occurring across the Danish countryside.
A person who is strange, peculiar, or eccentric.
