Crest Shows Colorful Past of ‘Neville’
We gave Joey Bernard the name Neville and asked to see what he could come up with. Here’s his answer:
“Neville is of British origin and changed four times, starting out as Newill, then Nevile, then Neville, then Nevill.
“The first chap to register this name legally was Ralph D. Neuilla and Richard D. Nouuilla in 1086. They were obviously brothers, a French name. The next person to register it was Gilbert Neuile, de Nouila, in 1142 in Lincolnshire in England. Then John D. Newill in 1235 in Wales.
“The Nevilles came from Neville in France, an ancient name. My sources say it’s a place name. We got our names from what we did, where we lived, how we looked, and so that was a place name. There was more than one registration, but we’ll go back to the oldest one, where it started.”
After locating a physical description of the Neville coat of arms, he discovered that the shield was cut into four quarters.
The first and fourth are sable, or black. A griffin, a mythical animal that is half eagle, half lion is in the upper left and lower right. He’s rearing up, ready to strike. He’s white, but his beak and his four legs are gold, he said.
The second and third quarters are gules, or red. “Charged on it is the cross of St. Andrew, the Scottish patron saint. It’s white. Right in the middle of that cross, there is a rose of the field. The field in this case was red, so it’s a red rose, and the thorns on the outside of the rose are going to be green, and the seeds on the inside are going to be gold, he said.
The crest above is the head of an old English hunting dog, from the neck up, in black. And the motto, which is on the bottom, “Ne vile velis,” translates to: Wish nothing base; don’t have an evil thought, he said.
“What it all means is that the cross in the shield belongs to Scotland, and the rose in the middle is called the teardrop or the dewdrop of heaven, a symbol of great love. So they had great love for their religious belief, that’s probably why they fought.
“The griffin is really two animals. The top part is an eagle; the bottom part is a lion. The lion was taken into heraldry for strength--not brute strength, that is the bull. The lion was for strength taken in the field of battle. The eagle was taken for superiority. Whatever they had done, the crown had considered it done in a superior fashion.
“The colors were an indication of what the crown thought of the family. Black, the first and fourth quarters of the shield, belonged to the church and the king.
“The griffin is white and was granted because the heralds felt that by nature, it was a peaceful family that carried themselves nobly. The beak and legs are gold, for purity and valor; what they did was not for gain, but from their heart. They believed in what they were doing, and the herald so stated that.”