Do people still call ‘#’ a pound sign?

March 13, 2020 1:02 PM

Do younger people know what ‘pound sign’ refers to? Or do they just know it as a hashtag?

I had a delivery driver today who couldn’t get into the building when I said to enter “pound, 5555.” We figured it out but should I call it a hashtag? It seems like the # on a call box is a pound sign but I am old.

posted by dianeF to Writing & Language (25 answers total)

I'm in my early 30s, born/raised in the US, and I would know what you meant if you said "pound sign" (unless we were in a British context where I'd probably assume "£").

However, if you asked me to describe "#" off the top of my head I'd most likely describe it as a "number sign", then probably "hashtag", and then "pound sign" last.
posted by andrewesque at 1:07 PM on March 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

The symbol has always had a bunch of names: pound sign, number sign, hash mark, octothorpe, crosshatch, and others. Calling the symbol the "pound sign" is specific to American English; in UK English, "pound sign" means £.

The modern Twitter word "hashtag" of course derives from the longstanding name "hash mark" for the symbol, and yes, some (mainly younger) people have taken this to be the name of the symbol itself. Personally I wouldn't call it that, but if someone is confused by "pound sign", you can try "number sign" or "hash mark".
posted by Syllepsis at 1:08 PM on March 13, 2020 [9 favorites]

I think they must know what it is as "the pound sign" because it's still used often. Most automated telephone customer service systems ask you to enter your order number, reservation or other numerical information "followed by the pound sign." Of course, maybe younger people prefer the company's online chat instead of calling but not all companies have both.
posted by pangolin party at 1:15 PM on March 13, 2020 [10 favorites]

British English: It's always been a hash to me. Pound means £ or the imperial weight measure here. Contextually I'd probably remember it means # if I was talking to an American.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:20 PM on March 13, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm in the U.S., in my late twenties, and I have always known it as the pound sign, but the undergrads I teach (18-22yo) only know it as a hashtag.
posted by baptismal at 1:30 PM on March 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

I’m 40 and I call it a “sharp”, but that’s because of my 20 years as a software engineer.
posted by sideshow at 1:41 PM on March 13, 2020 [5 favorites]

I thought you were going to say "musician."

Yes, in the US, "pound sign" is a pretty universal term for this character (well known from automated voice prompts to "enter the number followed by the pound sign.") But why pound? What's not experienced anymore is use of this symbol to mark items for sale by weight. I'm 66 and I remember seeing hand-written produce prices in the supermarket stated with a # instead of "lb" (eg Apples: 50¢/#) when I was a kid, but I think that was over by the late 1960s.
posted by Rash at 1:48 PM on March 13, 2020 [14 favorites]

I'm almost 39 and I have just now learned that # was actually used in reference to weight. I never knew why it was called the pound sign and just sort of made up a meaning for it (you pound the button on your phone with your finger?) so thank you, Rash for that piece of knowledge.
posted by acidnova at 1:51 PM on March 13, 2020 [5 favorites]

I should also answer the OP. I'm 38, from the US, and generally call it a number sign except when talking about music, in which case it's a sharp. To be honest, I still forget what is meant by pound sign when I get an automated phone prompt and usually have to debate if I'm supposed to hit # or * on the phone.
posted by acidnova at 1:55 PM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: These are really helpful, thank you. Yes, I think he was hitting the * sign (still ‘star?’). Never knew that it use to refer to lb, I also imagined forcefully pounding the button, so thank you. I forgot I could call it the number sign!
posted by dianeF at 2:03 PM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm an American in my early 30s, and definitely still know that usage. In fact, per Rash's comment, I still see the symbol used when hand-marking the weight of a box. I know I've seen boxes with "27#" written on them (and have written it myself) as part of creating the appropriate shipping label.

I do feel like 'number sign' is more likely to be recognized among all ages. I feel like most people must have seen usage like "We're #1!" or "#1 Dad".
posted by yuwtze at 2:09 PM on March 13, 2020 [3 favorites]

I teach programming to high school students (mostly 15 and 16 year olds). We have to use the # symbol often and my students only refer to it as “hashtag”. (I have accepted this despite wanting to be a curmudgeon about it properly being just “hash”.) They might recognize some of the other names but I don’t think “pound sign” would be familiar to them.
posted by firefleet at 3:01 PM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

You know the voicemail robot lady that gives you the options? If you're happy with your message, you press a number, if you want to erase and re-record you press another number, if you want to continue recording where you left off you press whatever? And to hear those options again, press pound?

This is my story of pound.

in about 2000 I got a message on my college voicemail from a student who was trying to call in sick. His name was Charles and he was from Flatbush or somewhere like that. I loved him so much. You're never supposed to have a favorite student, but he was and will always be mine. He would've been traditional college kid age, so 18, 19, in 2000 or so.

Anyway, I checked my voicemail messages and Charles said in his best about-to-die voice,

"Miss, uhhh. Miss Pepino, uhhhh, this is Charles. I'm not feeli- shhhhhh!"

Just after "Miss, uhhh," this hilarious, delighted giggling started in the background, and I suddenly developed a brilliantly clear mental image that has never faded, of Charles and whoever was giggling, and their surroundings. (It seemed clear they were in a comfy place.)

There followed a bunch of clicks and beeps. Presently I heard Charles again, somewhat farther away, exasperated:
"Is this pound?"
"Heehee- Hah?"
"Is this pound?"
"hahaha, ye-heh-hess!"
"WELL then! Why the shit be fuckin up?"
...
>click<>
I listened to it about 200 times and never erased it and it's probably floating around somewhere still in voicemail limbo.

but anyway so that's one more data point: in the year 2000, 18-year-old Charles did not know "pound." In my opinion the voicemail robot lady started all this "pound" stuff. Before her it was "the number sign."
posted by Don Pepino at 3:05 PM on March 13, 2020 [17 favorites]

I just asked my kids. The 10-year-old says "hashtag" and the 12-year-old says "number sign". The older one said she might have figured out what "pound sign" meant if you asked her what one is, but the youngest had no idea.
posted by belladonna at 4:36 PM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

My 17 year old had no idea what "pound sign" meant, but she did know that "number sign" meant #.
posted by Redstart at 6:40 PM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

What was wrong with octothorp?
posted by Marky at 7:55 PM on March 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

Two of my young 20s kids knew pound, number and hash tag. My other young 20s kid called it the tic tac toe sign. He is a wise guy. Draw your own conclusions.
posted by AugustWest at 8:07 PM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

US American here, early 30s, and I know it as a number sign first and pound sign second.

My primarily Gen Z undergrad students, who encounter it regularly as the comment sign in Python/R, almost always call it a hashtag.
posted by egregious theorem at 8:54 PM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

My 13 year old didn't know what it was called recently when we were following phone prompts together...he only knew it as hashtag.
posted by victoriab at 5:48 AM on March 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you guys for these and for asking the kids! I was really interested, and I’m happy to call it a number sign now. I just kept saying “pound sign, the pound sign” which wasn’t helpful.
posted by dianeF at 6:10 AM on March 14, 2020

I’m looking forward to the day a young musician tells me a song is in C hashtag.
posted by Jode at 9:54 AM on March 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

I just polled a 17-year-old I had on hand. He said "You mean the thing they use for hash tags? I guess a pound sign?"
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:25 PM on March 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

I’m looking forward to the day a young musician tells me a song is in C hashtag.

I work in IT and before I heard it said out loud I definitely thought the programming language C# was called "c hash".
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:46 PM on March 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

There's only one true name for it.
posted by octothorpe at 4:14 PM on March 14, 2020 [6 favorites]

Confusion over this is a gimmick in the film Olympus Has Fallen (2013)—a younger guy reading off the password to disarm the Big Bomb says "hashtag" and the older protagonist typing the password in doesn't know what he's talking about, as the clock continues to count down...
posted by XMLicious at 9:53 AM on April 11, 2020