The ^ symbol is most commonly called the caret.

Depending on context, you may also hear it called:

  • Circumflex (especially in typography or when it appears over a letter, like ê).
  • Exponent/Power symbol (in plain-text math to mean “to the power of”, like 2^3).
  • Hat (casual name, especially in math and programming, e.g., “x-hat”).

On a standard keyboard, you usually type it with Shift + 6.