How did they evolve?

The idea of suit symbols may have originated with Chinese ‘Money’ cards. However, the suits that made their way into Europe were probably an adaptation of the Islamic cups, swords, coins, and polo sticks. As Europeans didn't understand what the polo sticks were they reassigned them as batons and they became what we know today as the ‘Latin’ suit-signs. These were used in Spain and the Iberian peninsula and Italy until French card makers had a brilliant commercial coup of inventing the ‘French’ suit-signs which are much simpler to reproduce.

Meanwhile, by the end of the fifteenth century, playing cards had spread over most of Western Europe and the technology of printing became well established. The diverse cultural contexts led to a diversity of playing card types and styles. Stereotyped designs peculiar to particular regions evolved although the combinations of suit symbols were not always stable. In some regions the suit signs were somewhat fluid and included everyday objects, animals, hunting equipment or flowers.

In consequence, first came the Latin (Spanish) suit systems, which are still employed in Spain and the Americas, Italy, the Philippines, some parts of France and North Africa. The courts were probably all-male to begin with, but female pages and queens were soon introduced. Germanic suit systems (including Swiss) evolved after a period of experimentation with different combinations of suits, and finally the French suit system was invented as a technical innovation in which the numeral cards were simplified, and which has become the most widely-used suit system around the world.