Roosevelt Coat of Arms

The Roosevelt name is of Dutch origin, and includes variations in spelling such as van Roosenvelt and van Rosenvelt. The literal translation of the name is "of the rose field."
It is a common misconception that there is one coat of arms associated to everyone of a common surname, when, in fact, a coat of arms is property passed through direct lineage. This means that there are numerous families of Roosevelt, perhaps under various spellings, that are related, but because they are not the direct descendants of a Roosevelt that owned an armorial device do not have rights or claims to any arms themselves.
In heraldry, canting arms are a visual or pictorial play on a surname, and were and still are a popular practice. It would be common to find roses, then, in arms of many Roosevelt families, even unrelated ones. Also, grassy mounds or fields of green would be a familiar attribute.
The arms of the Dutch burgher Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt, ancestor of the American political family that included Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, were white with a rosebush with three rose flowers growing upon a grassy mound, and whose crest was of three ostrich feathers divided into red and white halves each. In heraldic terms this would be described as, Argent upon a grassy mound a rose bush proper bearing three roses gules barbed and seeded proper, with a crest upon a torse argent and gules of Three ostrich plumes each per pale gules and argent. Franklin Roosevelt altered his arms to rid of the rosebush and use in it‘s place three crossed roses on their stems, changing the blazon of his shield to Three roses one in pale and two in saltire gules barbed seeded slipped and leaved proper.
The van Rosevelt family of Oud-Vossemeer in Zeeland had a coat of arms that was divided horizontally, the top portion had a white chevron between three white roses, while the bottom half was gold with a red lion rampant. More traditionally, this would be stated as, Per fess vert a chevron between three roses argent and Or a lion rampant gules.

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