The @ symbol is most commonly known as the at sign or commercial at. It originated in accounting to mean "at the rate of" (like 5 apples @ $1 each) and became famous for email addresses and social media handles.

Official Names

This typographical glyph has a few standard English terms, all rooted in its practical history.

  • Commercial at or commat : Its formal Unicode designation (U+0040), from old invoice shorthand.
  • Address sign : A less common but recognized alternative for its role in digital communication.

Global Nicknames

Cultures add fun, visual twists—think of it as a worldwide game of "what does this curly A look like?".

  • In Hebrew: Shtrúdel (strudel pastry slice).
  • In Finnish: Kissanhäntä (cat's tail).
  • In Vietnamese: A còng (bent/hooked A).
  • In Croatian: Manki (little monkey).
    These playful names highlight its swirl, evoking animals, food, or curls.

Brief History

Traces back to a 1345 Bulgarian manuscript with a similar shape for "amen," but it boomed in the 1970s with email.

Ray Tomlinson picked it for the first email (1969), separating user from host—pure genius simplicity.

No single inventor; it evolved from medieval scribes to modern tech.

Modern Uses

Beyond emails, it tags people on X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram, sparks trends, and even appears in Morse code as a merged A-C.

Fun fact : In 2025 forums like Reddit, users still debate dash vs. hyphen, but @ remains universally "at".

TL;DR : Call it the at sign —simple, universal, and endlessly nicknamed worldwide. Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.