Clan Ged is a Scottish clan

Scottish clan

Scottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...

. The clan does not currently have a chief

Scottish clan chief

The Scottish Gaelic word clann means children. In early times, and possibly even today, clan members believed themselves to descend from a common ancestor, the founder of the Scottish clan. From its perceived founder a clan takes its name. The clan chief is the representative of this founder, and...

 recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms

Lord Lyon King of Arms

The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that country, issuing new grants of arms, and serving as the judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon, the oldest...

 and is considered an armigerous clan

Armigerous clan

An armigerous clan is a Scottish clan, family or name which is registered with the Court of the Lord Lyon and once had a chief who bore undifferenced arms, but does not have a chief currently recognized as such by Lyon Court...

. Without a recognised chief the clan has no standing under Scots Law

Scots law

Scots law is the legal system of Scotland. It is considered a hybrid or mixed legal system as it traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. With English law and Northern Irish law it forms the legal system of the United Kingdom; it shares with the two other systems some...

. In Scotland, the surname

Surname

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...

 Ged

Ged

A ged is a heraldic term for the fish known in English as a pike. It is often used in "canting" coats; that is, using coats of arms to make a pun on the last name of the bearer, one of his titles, a nickname, or the name of his estate. The word ged is derived from the Old Norse gaddr...

and Geddes may be derived from the place-name Geddes

Geddes, Highland

Geddes is a small village located 5 km to the south of Nairn, in the Highland council area of Scotland.-Wildlife:The area's woods and open fields are home to many types of birds, including Buzzards and Eagles. One of the reasons the population is so high may be because the Forestry Commission...

 in Nairn

Nairn (boundaries)

Nairn was a general purpose county of Scotland, with the burgh of Nairn as the county town, until 1975, when, under the Local Government Act 1973, the county area became one of the eight districts of the two-tier Highland region...

. Another possibility is that it is derived from the Old English gedda, a nickname

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 meaning pike. The coats of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 of Ged and Geddes contain three pike, referring to their surnames. The English word for pike is luce, and several Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 families named de Lucy

De Lucy

de Lucy or de Luci is the surname of an old Norman noble family originating from Lucé in Normandy, one of the great baronial Anglo-Norman families which became rooted in England after the Norman conquest. The first records are about Adrian de Luci who went into England after William the Conqueror...

have pike on their coats of arms. One unsupported possibility is that one such family moved to Scotland and adopted the surnames Ged or Geddes. An early record of the clan name is found in the Privy Council

Privy council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...

, which records the respite granted to James Tweedie after the murder of William Geddes in 1558.

The crest badge

Scottish crest badge

A Scottish crest badge is a heraldic badge worn to show allegiance to an individual or membership in a specific Scottish clan. Crest badges are commonly called clan crests, but this is a misnomer; there is no such thing as a collective clan crest, just as there is no such thing as a clan coat of...

 suitable for members of Clan Ged is derived from the arms of Ged of that Ilk, which is recorded in the Lyon Register. The crest badge contains the crest a pike's head Proper and the motto DURAT DITAT PLACET (from Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

: "it sustains, it enriches, it pleases"). The crest of a pike is a pun

Pun

The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...

 on the clan name. The use of pike on the arms is an example of canting arms

Canting arms

Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...

, as a ged is the heraldic term for a pike.

See also

• Geddes (surname), people with the surname Geddes
• Ged
  Ged
  A ged is a heraldic term for the fish known in English as a pike. It is often used in "canting" coats; that is, using coats of arms to make a pun on the last name of the bearer, one of his titles, a nickname, or the name of his estate. The word ged is derived from the Old Norse gaddr...
  
  , things named Ged