Smela's coat of arms depicts a girl breaking the arrow. According to the legend, during one of the Golden Horde raids, a local girl guided Russian warriors to the rear of the invaders. The enemy were defeated but the girl was killed with the enemy's arrow. Nobody knew her name, so they simply called her Smela ('a brave girl' in Russian). When the town was established there, they dicided to keep the name to commemorate the girl who saved the warriors and the local people.