Why do Minecraft Banners have such strange names?

You may have noticed when you mouse over a banner in Minecraft that it has a very strange name. The Minecraft programmers didn’t just make these names up: they come from a combination of Vexillology and Heraldry.

Vexi-what?

Vexillology is the study of flags. Vexillolgists have developed a language to describe the different patterns that are used in designing all kinds of flags.

Heraldry is the art of creading (and the study of) coats of arms, such as you might see on a knight’s shield or clothing.

Because banners in Minecraft are a little bit like a coat of arms, and a little bit like a flag being hung sideways, the language being used to describe them is a combination of the two, with a few changes to make it easier and to fit the game better.

Glossary

Here is a list of funny words, some of which are used in Minecraft’s banner system.

Base
Base means “at the bottom”.
Bend
A diagonal stripe, running from top left to bottom right.
Bordure
A funny way of writing “Border”.
Canton
A square in the corner of the banner.
Charge
A symbol or icon or shape in the middle of the shield
Chevron
In traditional heraldry, this is like an upside-down V shape, but in Minecraft it is a triangle.
Chief
In traditional heraldry, this is a stripe across the top, but in Minecraft banners, it just means “at the top”. So a traditional Chief is a “Chief Fess” in Minecraft.
Dexter
The word Dexter comes from the Latin for “right” and it means “on the left”… wait, what? Imagine you are holding your banner with the front facing away from you, like a shield. Now a Dexter object is on your right, but the viewer’s left.
Fess
A horizontal stripe.
Field
The background of the banner. In Minecraft, the word is only used in “Field Masoned”, but properly this would also refer to the starting colour of the banner.
Indented
A zigzag pattern, like sharp teeth.
Inverted
Turned upside down.
Lozenge
A rhombus, or diamond shape.
Masoned
A pattern like a brick wall.
Pale
A vertical stripe.
Paly
Lots of Pales.
Per
“Per” is a word used to describe how a banner is divided into two. So “Per Pale” is “divided by a vertical line”, “Per Bend” is “divided by a diagonal line” and so on.
Roundel
a circle shape.
Saltire
A diagonal cross.
Sinister
From the Latin for “Left”. As with Dexter above, it refers to things that are on the right side of the banner as you look at it. “Sinister” is also used when something is flipped left to right like a mirror image. Therefore a “Bend Sinister” is a mirror image of a standard Bend.
Thing
The symbol of Mojang, the company that makes Minecraft.