If a heart shape ❤ wasn't called a heart, then what would it be called?

The heart shape, widely recognized as a symbol of love, has uncertain origins but is believed to have evolved from various influences, including the shape of ivy leaves and the seed pods of the silphium plant, which was used in ancient times for its contraceptive properties.

Its association with romantic love began in the 13th century, with the first known depiction appearing in a French manuscript around 1250, and it gained popularity in art and literature during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

A Heart-Shaped Plant Used as Birth Control

Perhaps the most unusual theory concerns silphium, a species of giant fennel that once grew on the North African coastline near the Greek colony of Cyrene. The ancient Greeks and Romans used silphium as both a food flavoring and a medicine—it supposedly worked wonders as a cough syrup—but it was most famous as an early form of birth control.

Ancient writers and poets hailed the plant for its contraceptive powers, and it became so popular that it was cultivated into extinction by the first century A.D. (legend has it that the Roman Emperor Nero was presented with the last surviving stalk). Silphium’s seedpod bore a striking resemblance to the modern Valentine’s heart, leading many to speculate that the herb’s associations with love and sex may have been what first helped popularize the symbol. The ancient city of Cyrene, which grew rich from the silphium trade, even put the heart shape on its money.