We draw it without thinking.
On cards. In messages. In the margins of notebooks. We wear it around our necks and give it to people we love.
The heart is probably one of the most recognisable symbols in the world.
But there is something rather strange about it.
It doesn't actually look very much like a human heart.
So where did the shape come from, and how did two curved lines and a point become shorthand for love?
The answer takes us from an extinct plant in the ancient Mediterranean to medieval manuscripts, hidden jewellery, royal love tokens and tiny objects made to say what words sometimes couldn't.
First: what does the heart symbol mean?
Today, the heart most commonly represents love, affection and emotional connection.
But its meaning can be wider than romantic love.
A heart can represent devotion. Friendship. Family. Remembrance. Courage. Attachment. Someone we want to keep close.
That flexibility may be one reason the symbol has survived for so long.
A heart doesn't tell us who to love or even what kind of love it represents.
It simply says:
this matters to me.
And humans have been finding ways to express that idea through objects for centuries.
But why does a heart look like that?
This is where the story becomes much more interesting.
The familiar ♥ shape bears only a passing resemblance to the organ beating inside us, and historians don't have one definitive explanation for its origin.
Instead, there are several possible threads to follow.
One of the most intriguing begins with a plant that disappeared almost 2,000 years ago.
The mysterious heart-shaped seed of ancient Cyrene
In the ancient Greek city of Cyrene, in what is now Libya, there grew a plant called silphium.
Silphium was enormously valuable. Ancient Greeks and Romans used it for food and medicine, and historical sources also associated it with contraception.
It became so important to Cyrene's economy that images of the plant appeared on the city's coins.
And on some of those coins is something remarkably familiar:
a symmetrical seed or fruit with two rounded lobes at the top and a point beneath.
It looks remarkably like a heart.
This has led to an irresistible theory: perhaps the heart symbol began with silphium, a plant already connected with sex, fertility and relationships.
It's a wonderful story.
There's just one problem.
We don't actually know that it's true.
There is no proven historical line connecting the ancient silphium image with the later symbol for romantic love. The resemblance is real; the connection remains speculation.
And perhaps that makes the object even more fascinating.
Thousands of years ago, people were carrying coins stamped with a shape we would instantly recognise as a heart , even though it may have meant something completely different to them.
The heart enters the medieval love story
For a more recognisable connection between the heart and love, we need to jump forward to medieval Europe.
One particularly famous example appears in a 13th-century French manuscript known as the Roman de la Poire — Romance of the Pear.
In one of its illustrations, a kneeling figure appears to offer his heart to a woman.
But look closely and the medieval heart isn't quite ours yet.
It is more pine-cone or pear-shaped, and its point faces upwards.
This makes sense when we remember that medieval artists weren't working from modern anatomical knowledge. Their ideas about the heart were influenced by descriptions inherited from ancient writers and physicians.
Over the following centuries, the image gradually changed.
The point turned downwards.
The indentation at the top became more pronounced.
And the shape slowly began to resemble the heart we would draw today.
By the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, the heart was becoming increasingly familiar as a symbol of affection and devotion.
When hearts became something you could wear
This is perhaps our favourite part of the story.
Because the heart didn't remain on the page.
It became jewellery.
Medieval rings and brooches could carry inscriptions of loyalty, affection and remembrance. One extraordinary example in the British Museum is a gold heart-shaped brooch from the Fishpool Hoard, dating from the 15th century.
On the reverse is an inscription in medieval French:
“Je suy vostre sans de partier.”
Its meaning is wonderfully simple:
“I am yours forever.”
The sentiment is more than 500 years old.
But it doesn't feel particularly distant.
Someone once commissioned it, gave it, received it or wore it. The object may be sitting behind museum glass today, but originally it belonged to a real human relationship.
That's the thing about symbolic jewellery.
The materials survive long after the people and their stories have disappeared.
A Tudor heart made to say “always”
Another extraordinary heart-shaped jewel brings the story into Tudor England.
Dating to around 1518, the gold Tudor Heart is associated with Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.
The pendant combines their symbols: the Tudor rose and Katherine's pomegranate.
Turn it over and there are the initials H and K.
But perhaps its most evocative detail is a single word.
Toujours.
Always.
The British Museum's research suggests the jewel may have been connected to celebrations surrounding the betrothal of Henry and Katherine's young daughter Mary to the French heir.
Which makes the object more complicated than a simple romantic gift. It could speak simultaneously of marriage, dynasty, family, loyalty and political alliance.
The heart had become capable of carrying many different kinds of attachment.
Love tokens weren't always precious
Not every meaningful heart was made from gold.
Centuries later, ordinary coins were sometimes smoothed, engraved and transformed into love tokens.
The British Museum holds examples decorated with hearts, arrows, names and personal messages.
Some were connected with courtship.
Others were made between relatives or friends.
Particularly poignant examples are associated with people facing transportation overseas, turning an ordinary coin into something to leave behind with someone they loved.
A heart pierced by arrows might look decorative to us now.
To its original owner, it could have represented separation, loyalty or a promise not to forget.
The monetary value of the object had become almost irrelevant.
Its emotional value was everything.
The heart became a tiny language
By the 18th and 19th centuries, sentimental jewellery had developed an increasingly elaborate visual vocabulary.
Hearts appeared alongside keys, locks, gemstones, hair and miniature portraits.
A locked heart could suggest devotion.
A key might imply that someone possessed the key to another person's heart.
A heart containing a lock of hair could become an intensely personal object of remembrance.
Jewellery was doing something humans have always asked small objects to do:
carry a message.
Sometimes publicly.
Sometimes secretly.
Why has the heart lasted?
Perhaps because it is so simple.
You don't need to know the history of medieval manuscripts or Tudor jewellery to understand a heart.
Its meaning has become almost instinctive.
And yet every person can give it a slightly different meaning.
For one person, a heart necklace might represent a partner.
For another, a child.
A friendship.
Someone they miss.
A reminder to be kinder to themselves.
Or simply a small object they have always loved.
The symbol stays the same.
The story belongs to the person wearing it.
A tiny symbol with a very long story
There is something wonderful about taking such a familiar shape and looking at it closely again.
A possible ancient seed.
A medieval lover offering his heart.
A gold brooch promising I am yours forever.
A Tudor jewel engraved with always.
An ordinary coin transformed into something too meaningful to spend.
And eventually, the tiny heart pendants we still wear today.
Perhaps that's why symbolic jewellery continues to fascinate us.
The objects may be small, but the ideas behind them rarely are.
Some symbols have been understood for hundreds of years. We simply add our own story to them.
Keep a little love close
Our Rose Quartz Heart Necklace brings together two enduring symbols associated with love: the heart and rose quartz.
Small enough for everyday wear, it's a quiet little piece with a much bigger story behind it, whether you choose it for its symbolism, its history, or simply because it means something to you.
Discover the Rose Quartz Heart Necklace →
Or perhaps another gemstone speaks to you.
From soft pink rose quartz and purple amethyst to luminous moonstone and deep black onyx, explore our collection of delicate gemstone heart necklaces and meaningful jewellery.