The Number Sign

In today's short and very random post, I wanted to talk about the number sign (#) - in particular the different names.  This symbol has at least three different names; 1) number sign, 2) hash, and 3) pound sign.  The official name (at least in North America) is "number sign."  In Europe it's called "hash."  What's interesting is most Americans call it the "pound sign" which is most likely because when used in the context of a telephone it's called "pound" or "pound sign."  But what's the origin of this "pound" name?

Let's start off by looking at the typical keyboard layout in North America.

You can see the number sign is located above the '3' key.  Now let's look at the United Kingdom keyboard layout.

If you look at the '3' key you'll see a different symbol.  This symbol (£) is called "pound sterling," or sometimes just "pound."

So the reason why the number sign is often times called the "pound sign" is because on the US keyboard layout the number sign takes the location of the pound sterling symbol.

Hopefully this gives you reason to ponder the next time someone says "pound sign."  That's an inaccurate name that probably dates back more than a century now.