Guide to Troop Crests

Posted On May 14, 2025

(Originally posted October 2014; Last updated May 2025)

Troop crests can be such a personal decision for a troop. Knowing about the crests and finding the best way for your troop to pick one can lead to a great decision made by a happy troop.

A Short History

Troop crests were originally patrol crests. Each patrol in a troop would decide what they wanted to represent themselves. Troops were also called by their troop crest before there were troop numbers.
The first four troop crests were the white rose, carnation, red rose, and poppy. These first crests were round with a black background and red embroidered border.

1914 – Troop crests were changed to an oval design with a khaki background and black border.
1918 – Troops could make their own crests and this became widely popular.
1928 – Troop crests were changed to a grey-green background.
1930 and on – Troop crests were changed variously to match the choices in the colors chosen for uniforms.
2010 – A new set of 16 troop crests were released with the oval shape changed to a shield.

To view a collection of historical troop crests, you can click here.

Current Troop Crests

These are our current troop crests:

And the meanings:

Arrow – Action and moving forward.
Bee – Hard work.
Bluebird – Happiness and good fortune.
Carnation – Health and energy.
Crane – Strength, grace, and honor.
Eagle – Sees important details. (Bring focus to the group.)
Lei – Friendship, love and peace.
Lightning – Good ideas and creative power.
Nautilus Shell – Growing on the inside and outside. (Loving and accepting change.)
Pansy – Loving thoughts and special friendships. (Great Girl Scout bonds.)
Shooting Star – Rare, unexpected, and beautiful!
Sun – Warmth and life. (Helping yourselves and other grow.)
Trumpet – Ready for action.
Unicorn – Courage and beauty.
Waterfall – Always in motion steadily moving toward the goal. (Stay true to what you believe even though the world is always changing.)
White Rose – New beginnings. (New adventures.)

Girls choose a troop crest at the beginning of a troop (usually at the beginning of the troop year). Troop crests are not supposed to be changed for the life of the troop. However a troop should be allowed to change their troop crest when they gain or loose a fair number of members, girls change troops when bridging to a new level, or if they feel the troop crest no longer represents them (the troop crest decided as brownies may no longer represent the troop as cadettes).

Who Wears A Troop Crest?

Troop crests are worn by Brownies and up. Before the curriculum change in 2010, it was for Juniors and up. Daisies usually don’t wear the troop crest, but sometimes those in multi-level troops, or those who just want to, will.

Where To Put Your Troop Crest

Troop crests are worn below the council ID strip and above the troop number.

How To Choose A Troop Crest

When given the choice with pictures or a list of the symbols, most troops (especially younger ones) will choose the unicorn or something ‘pretty’. Reading off the list above (which are shortened versions) can help them decide what they are choosing so they are focusing more on the meanings than the image.

Here you can find a link to Troop Crest Voting Cards to help your troop decide.

Other Uses For A Troop Crest

Here are some fun uses for your troops crest:

• Use it to identify troop equipment
• Add to a troop flag
• Add to your Swaps tags
• Make stickers
• Shrinky Dinks – necklace, bag tag, keychain, or pin
• Scrapbooking
• Use it as a theme for your troop bridging or other party
• Use your troop crest theme on your troop shirt
• Put on thank you cards

This is my favorite crest that definitely represents me!

The lightning bolt!

I think that’s awesome since the two troop crests we used when I was a girl scout were the shooting star and the lightening bolt. I hope your troop has picked a great one for them!

Tell us in the comments WHY your troop picked the crest they chose.

~Zigg