The first Bulgarian national and state coat of arms was regulated under the so called Tarnovo Constitution, 1879: “crimson, lion or”. This blazon is a result of continuity from the Bulgarian Revival, when the lion was perceived by Bulgarian society as a national symbol. In the case, the prototype of it was the image from Stemmatographia by Hristofor Zhefarovich (1741) – an armorial, very popular among Bulgarian revival elite.

In 1881 the supporters with national flags were added to the greater coat of arms. This design with slight differences in emblazoning was used until the middle of 1920’s, when the Stefan Badzhov's project was adopted. In this period the national arms and the royal ones were often mixed up by contemporaries, and later even by researchers.

After the 1946 proclamation of the “people’s republic”, the heraldic tradition was broken. An emblem, designed after soviet pattern, was adopted as a national symbol.

In 1990 the communist symbols were declared illegal and after 7-years period of debates, in 1997 the recent coat of arms was adopted.