Our Bar YY brand is an example of a double letter cattle brand. There is something about double letters. People like them for several reasons, but they do like them. The study of double letter brands is too long for our website, and even focusing on Texas double letter brands alone would be a long study, but here are just a few examples for your consideration.
The Earliest Double A? Don Juan Joseph Flores de Bexar registered what is thought to be the first Texas brand recorded on July 1, 1762. Like many other old brands, there is some dispute about what it means.
The brand on the left is from the Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cattle-brands.
The right brand is from Frank Dobie’s book, From Hell to Breakfast on the Texas Portal to History website. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67649/m1/113/?q=%22Whatley,%20W.%20A.%22
Today, we might call the left brand “Flying Double A” (two As with wings above). But the left brand looks like something else. Dobie thought the Spanish settlers were inflicted by mestizo culture which incorporated Indian “man-signs” with the upper portion signifying uplifted arms or hands. No wonder Anglo settlers called many of these brands "Quién sabe” (“who knows), even the Mexican vaqueros could not explain the origins of their brands.
Double A Brahams - https://doubleabrahmans.com/
Double A Ranch is near Mission, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. They are breeders of Brahams, the humpbacked cattle popular in warm climates. Their brand is a stylized circle made of two As.
Double C Ranch - https://www.doublecranch.com/
The Double C is a hunting ranch on the Edwards Plateau, near Junction and Roosevelt Texas. The town takes its name from Teddy, but when he was a war hero before he as president. All that seems appropriate, since he once said,” In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.”
Double E Ranch- https://www.eeranches.com/
The Double E specializes in breeding high performance houses for rodeo competition near Whitesboro, north of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. This area has long been a center for horse breeding, including quarter horses, polo ponies and others.
Lucchese mirrored L- https://trademarks.justia.com/858/98/1883-ll-lucchese-85898117.html
https://www.lucchese.com/pages/timeline
In 1883, brothers Salvatore and Joseph Lucchese moved to San Antonio, Texas to set up a bookmaking shop near Fort Sam Houston. At the time, this was the United States Cavalry School in San Antonio. The history of this mark is hard to pin down, but presumably the two Ls represent the two brothers.
Double R Ranches
There are several Double R ranches in Texas. In theory we could have 254 ranches with the identical RR brand, each one registered in a different county. Yes, there are 254 counties in Texas. About four times more than the average state. If you add a bar, a rocker, reflect an R, we could have thousands of RR brands.
The Double R Bar - Probably the most famous Double R was Roy Roger’s ranch and brand, the Double Bar R in Apple Valley, near Victorville California. Of course, that’s not Texas, but we make an exception for Roy Rogers. And after all, his wife, Dale Evans was born in Uvalde, so that makes Roy a Texan-in-law.
The Double R near Flatonia, Texas - https://www.doublerranchtexas.com/about-us/
This Double R has been in business for generations and is both a cattle ranch and a hunting ranch. Their brand (like the Lucchese brand) is mirrored.
Bar RR Ranches - https://wikimapia.org/30170704/Bar-RR-Ranches
There are at least three Bar RR ranches in Texas. The weblink above is for a place owned by Rex Tillerson, former US Secretary of State. Their place is in Bartonville.
The image below is from the spread near Utopia Texas. Which has produced some impressive rodeo cutting horses.
There is yet another Bar RR near Electra Texas. And… There are other double R ranches and brands, including the R-bar-R in Bastrop County.
Is this Double U or W? Or a Snake? The King Ranch running W - https://king-ranch.com/about-us/history/the-running-w/
The King Ranch Brand was registered in 1869 but seems to have been used back into the 1850s. Is it Double U? W? A rattlesnake? A Longhorn?
There seems to be a lot no one knows about the most famous brand in the country.
The Double Z - https://www.doublezranchtx.com/
Our list cannot end without a Z brand. The Double Z is a hunting ranch about half way between San Antonio and Uvalde.