Côtes-d’Armor — Coat of Arms

Blazon

Per fess indented Azure and Ermine.

Reading the shield

• Ermine — the lower half carries the ermine of Brittany, the arms of the duchy.
• Azure — the upper half is blue: the sea.
• Per fess indented — the two halves meet along a jagged line, a row of points. It evokes the coast.

The arms say what the name says. The department was called Côtes-du-Nord, the “northern coasts”, from its creation on 4 March 1790 until 1990, when it took the name Côtes-d’Armor. Both names, and the shield, describe the same thing: Brittany meeting the sea.

The department has no official coat of arms. The shield shown here was proposed by the heraldist Robert Louis, who gave every French department a coat of arms in 1950, in Marques symboliques des départements français. For Côtes-d’Armor he took the arms of Brittany and cut them with a line evoking the coast.

He used the same idea next door: for Finistère he proposed ermine and blue divided by a jagged vertical line. Finistère chose other arms in 1975; Côtes-d’Armor never adopted any.

Logo and flag

The departmental council uses a logo designed in the 1980s by the Alexandre agency of Rennes. An older, unofficial flag of the department is also known: Robert Louis’s shield, with a yellow border added.

Does Côtes-d’Armor have an official coat of arms?

No. The arms usually shown, per fess indented azure and ermine, were proposed by the heraldist Robert Louis and never officially adopted. The departmental council uses a logo.

What does the coat of arms of Côtes-d’Armor mean?

The ermine of Brittany below, blue for the sea above, and between them a jagged line that evokes the coast.

Why was the department renamed?

It was called Côtes-du-Nord from 1790 until 1990, when it took the name Côtes-d’Armor.

• French Wikipedia, Côtes-d’Armor — the unofficial arms, the logo, the old flag, the name
• French Wikipedia, Armorial des départements de France — Robert Louis’s proposal and its meaning

The arms are described from the published blazon and the texts above, not from the drawing.

Last reviewed by the Emblema Mundi editorial team on 1 October 2026.