Fish – Positions

Introduction

Fishes (and dolphins) occur in heraldry, though they are not particularly common. There is a small specialised vocabulary for their positions, for example to describe whether they are head up or head down. The terms, like many in heraldry, are from old French:

The terms used for fish are:

Naiant: swimming (horizontally) fesswise, head to dexter (left as viewed!)
Hauriant: rising, or swimming vertically upwards. For example Gules 3 lucies hauriant or (de Lucy)
Uri(n)ant: diving, or swimming vertically downwards
Embowed: swimming horizontally but with a bend upwards in the middle. Dolphins are conventionally shown this way (a heraldic dolphin is considered to be a fish, and if blazoned proper is green with scarlet fins and tongue!)

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