What Crest?

If you go to a shopping mall you might find a shop that sells "family crests". Well, there is no such thing. Individuals in the past may have earned such devices but their descendants generally have no entitlement to those crests. Nevertheless, they make good talking points.

Why is there a fox in these Guptill crests? When one is not sure, something is better than nothing. Here is my theory: Somewhere out there is a book about the origins of surnames, and this book is used by these shopping mall entrepreneurs. They do not know that the name Guptill was invented from Gubtail, so they find these ancient Scottish individuals whose names resemble Guptill or they say that the name derives from the French word "goupil", which means "fox". Some Canadian Guptills have family legends about French origins, and this might be the explanation.

A search for a Gubtail crest is more likely to produce relevant results.