In the States we call this symbol # a pound sign. What is it called in the UK?

Flynn_17

A hash. In the UK, '£' is a pound sign, same as in Malta, Cyprus, and anywhere else that uses our currency. Feb 20 05, 1:13 PM

Buck540

A hash...interesting...thanks Flynn. Feb 20 05, 1:17 PM

tamarindgh

It's a number sign. The phone companies use them on phones, and if you have voicemail you may be asked to press it. Feb 20 05, 1:42 PM

marta_howard

It's a hash. My keyboard is weird and comes up with it instead of a real pound sign, which Flynn put...only just noticed that. Stupid keyboard, it's set to American settings, and I can't figure out how to turn it back to UK... Feb 20 05, 3:53 PM

Baloo55th

Marta: Start - Settings - Control Panels - Keyboard - Languages. You can get rid of the US one if you want. There is a nasty short cut for changing keyboard when you're in Word. I've had to get rid of it on some office machines where someone kept hitting it by mistake. Feb 20 05, 4:03 PM

tamarindgh

Gee, thanks Baloo, that was one of my recent posts. You must have missed that one. Feb 20 05, 8:58 PM

gmackematix

It goes by a number of names: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hash%20character Feb 20 05, 9:18 PM

lothruin

That "old-fashioned commercial practice of using a "#" suffix to tag pound weights on bills of lading" is still commonly in use, by the way. Though I have to say that most of the people I know who refer to it as the "pound sign" are actually computer programmers. They also call an ! "bang". Feb 20 05, 10:17 PM

Arpeggionist

In Hebrew, the # sign is known as "Sulamit" which would translate as "little ladder". Feb 21 05, 12:12 AM

kaylofgorons

There's a symbol floating around that combines the ! and the ? for those occasions when you're exclaiming a question. They're calling it interbang, but I haven't seen one. :D Sulamit. Feb 21 05, 8:04 AM

Baloo55th

Sulamit???? Feb 21 05, 4:05 PM

kaylofgorons

Lol. Read a few more of the posts, Baloo. I like to pick up words from other languages. Feb 21 05, 4:57 PM

McGruff

The # symbol was given the name "octothorpe" by Bell Labs engineer Don Macpherson in the early 1960's. The story as told by Ralph Carlsen is that a Bell Labs engineer, Don Macpherson, went to instruct their first client, the Mayo Clinic, in the use of the new system. He felt the need for a fresh and unambiguous name for the # symbol. His reasoning that led to the new word was roughly that it had eight points, so ought to start with octo–. He was apparently at that time active in a group that was trying to get the Olympic medals of the athlete Jim Thorpe returned from Sweden, so he decided to add thorpe to the end. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-oct1.htm Feb 22 05, 10:54 PM