It may have been more than just occassionally spelled Bullen. It may have been pronounced that way. In heraldry, there is a common pratice of canting arms, another common term for this is punning arms. Whatever term is used it all comes down to the application of some form of rebus to the coat of arms. This is most often used to display the owners name by careful selection of the charges that are placed upon the shield. There are other forms of canting arms, but I'll limit the discussion to this common practice which is applicable here.

Canting of arms may be a fairly complex rebus or just simply a graphic homonym. Anne's father, Thomas, had the following coat (1), which is a simple example of canting arms.

1.Arms of Thomas Boleyn

The blazon is Argent, a chevron gules between three bull's heads couped sable. The bulls for Boleyn or Bullen.

The coats of the wives of Henry VIII are quite interesting. Those of the lower born wives can be seen here: Historical Armory. They will be discussed in greater detail later, but a quick comment or two on Anne Boleyn's coat can't be resisted.

Unlike, the three other wives for whom Henry created coats, Anne Boleyn's coat (2) does not have her father's arms marshalled in one of its quarters. Could this be because she wanted to seem as though she came from higher stock than she did? A way of showing up Catherine. Anne can only make tenuous claims to a couple of the quarters on her coat and no claim to the prestigous Lancaster arms in the first quarter.

2.Arms of Anne Boleyn