TheGreatWolfgang said:
-1.

I would say dealias the whole thing altogether. When I tag <3, I expect to see heart symbols; when I tag heart, I expect to see the organ itself.

If the purpose is to make the tag into a word instead of a bunch of symbols, I feel that it's better to do it this way.

• Dealias heart --> <3.
• Alias <3 to heart_symbol.
• Alias heart to heart_(disambiguation) for the other heart_* tags.

This. So much this.

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Also, Dyrone, it doesn't matter how few of something there is, it's NEVER irrelevant. There's relevant tags that only have a couple of instances of them because no one ever tags it or, in some rare cases, no one makes content of it. That doesn't make them irrelevant or too few too matter. This site has a long and sordid history of having relevant tags that number in the single digits and that isn't going to change unless someone decides to make enough art of each to have them reach double-digit territory.

Your entire point of "it not being good enough to have its own tag because numbers" is not something that's ever been considered. Hell, a few years ago I got a neutral record for doing what I thought was cleaning up tags with barely any instances BECAUSE I was thinking exactly like you, there weren't enough instances of them for them to be anything but trash tags. It's gone now because they go away after a year or something these days yet that doesn't take from the fact that I was wrong and that's why I can safely say that you are, too.