Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
 Hecht Coat of Arms / Hecht Family CrestThe associated coat of arms for this name HECHT are recorded in J.B Rietstaps Armorial General. Illustrated by V & H.V Rolland's. This monumental work took 23 years to complete and 85,000 coats of Arms are included in this work. This name was a German nickname for a rapacious and greedy person, originally derived from the Old German word HECHET. It may also have been a metonymic occupational name for a catcher of pike. The name is also spelt HOCHT, GECHT and HECHTKOPF. Many of the modern family names throughout Europe reflect the profession or occupation of their forbears in the Middle Ages and derive from the position held by their ancestors in the village, noble household or religious community in which they lived and worked. The addition of their profession to their birth name made it easier to identify individual tradesmen and craftsmen. As generations passed and families moved around, so the original identifying names developed into the corrupted but simpler versions that we recognise today. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God. However much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. A notable member of the name was Ben HECHT (1894-1964) the American writer, born in New York. Starting as a journalist in Chicago, he wrote novels, plays and filmscripts. From 1946 he was dedicated to the Zionist cause and vilification of Britain as in 'A Flag is born' (1946). In the Middle Ages heraldry came into use as a practical matter. It originated in the devices used to distinguish the armoured warriors in tournament and war, and was also placed on seals as marks of identity. As far as records show, true heraldry began in the middle of the 12th century, and appeared almost simultaneously in several countries of Western Europe. |
