61

‪This article aims to study the transmission of names and coats of arms of the Portuguese curial aristocracy at the end of the Middle Ages. Names and coats of arms played a key role as a symbolic discourse encompassing several important elements in defining hierarchies within the aristocracy. The system was mainly, but not exclusively, structured around the transmission of paternal names and coats of arms, which is perfectly consistent with the male predominance in this society. Nevertheless, a substantial number of transmissions pass through the maternal side or other ascendants, thus forming a structural part of the system. A division is made in the aristocratic kinship: the elders, as successors, use the names and coats of arms of the father, while the perimeter formed by the younger men and women is the preferential space for circulating the symbols of the other ascendants, emphasizing broader relations with other lineages of the curial social space. The origin, as well as the social functions of this system, are to be related to other important points, concerning in particular the organization of aristocratic power, its relationship with the Crown, and the way in which kinship was a framework support for the social reproduction of the aristocracy.‪