name of sign

[Ember]

Anyone know the name of this sign @@@@@

[Stephen_G]

It's the `at' sign, from `at the rate of'

ATntlworld.com
ATyahoo.co.uk

etc.

[Ember]

thanks for your answers I knew it meant at but I did wonder if it had a posh name.

[Naomicorlett]

Sometimes known as the monkey's tail. But generally the "at " sign

[Schutzengel]

The official name is - Ampersand

[sara3]

I thought that is "&" is an ampersand.......

[sara3]

sorry, I got carried away with the is's!

I know that's wrong!

[Schutzengel]

Sara - I stand corrected, must be getting tired. Thanks.

[TCL-MUMPING]

Its full name is "commercial at"

[sara3]

I've always called it "the little at thingy" :o)

[swedeheart]

In Swedish it's a "trunk A" - trunk as in an elephant's trunk!

[delboy3]

In French it's known as l'escargot - the snail

[Quizmonster]

In English, the only genuine names for @ are 'the at sign' or, sometimes, 'the commercial at sign'.
The symbol originated in the 6th century, when scribes writing in Latin made @ stand for �ad', meaning �to/towards/near/at'. That is, they wrote the letter �a' and then curled the tail of the letter �d' around it. This is much the same meaning it has when we now use it as part of e-mail addresses. The @ indicates where the addressee is "at" as Americans - or even Dorset folk! - might put it.
There simply is no other generally-acceptable name in English, though attempts have been made to have it called �the mercantile symbol' or even the curlicue, scroll, whorl, cyclone, snail and cabbage!
The French call it an 'arobase' - apparently a corruption of �a rond bas', meaning"�a' surrounded by a circle" - but that's of little use to you unless you live in France or Quebec! In Denmark it's called a �trunk-a'...ie an �a' with an elephant's trunk...or a cinnamon roll. Not Scandinavian, are you? Other languages have similarly poetic names for it...'monkey' in Poland, 'monkey's tail' in Germany and South Africa, �monkey's testicle' in Holland, �cat's tail' in Finland, �snail' in Israel, Italy and Korea, �ear' in Turkey and even �pickled herring' in the Czech Republic! All wonderful ideas, but not for us, it seems. So, here in the UK, you must just settle for �at sign', I'm afraid.

[Ember]

Thankyou Quizmonster for a very comprehensive answer, I appreciate that, nice to see you are still around, I have been away for some time. Ember

[Quizmonster]

My pleasure. Good to see you back.