Where did the corazón shape (<3) come from and why is it called a heart?

Well, if tu turn your head 180 degrees, it kinda looks like a heart. That's why people use it. Kidding. Nobody's quite sure, but it might have to do with a North African plant. During the seventh century B.C., the city-state of Cyrene had a lucrative trade in a rare, now-extinct plant: silphium. Although it was mostly used for seasoning, silphium was reputed to have an off-label use as a form of birth control. The silphium was so important to Cyrene's economy that coins were minted that depicted the plant's seedpod, which looks like the corazón shape we know today. The theory goes that the corazón shape first became associated with sex, and eventually, with love.

The Valentine's corazón was supposed to be 2 hearts fused together, but it came out in the shape of <3 so they left it like that.

Human buttocks

The original corazón shape ♥ is modeled after two human hearts that are sewn together.

Hence the name heart.

And I suppose <3 is easier to make than ♥.