The older among us called the "#" the "number sign" for years.

I never understood how it became "pound sign", but learned that no one (almost) knew what I was talking about when I said number sign.

cheers
>>...
>>>>>And for the record, the technical term for the little pointy hat over the '6' on the keyboard, is "little pointy hat over the '6'".
>>>>
>>>Ok, if you want to get technical for real;
>>>
>>
>>I don't know how my message got screwed up (well, yes I do - that old black magic called "Why the hell has overwrite mode come on again, as it often does when I'm editing a message?"), but:
>>
>>cumflex
>>
>>was supposed to be circumflex - ^
>>>
>>>We call it a caret
>>
>>No, it's circumflex. < or > are left- and right-caret, surely.
>
>Check Webster's. We call it a 'caret'. We normally refer to > as the "greater than" sign, and < as the "less than" sign, but yes, I know ^ can also be referred to as a 'circumflex'. Here it's just waaaaaay more common to call it a 'caret'. I suppose it also depends on the use. A circumflex is used to clarify pronunciation or accent, or whatever. A caret is used to show an insert.
>
>>...
>>
>>>>~ = "cedilla"
>>>
>>>We call it a tilde
>>
>>Yipes! you're absolutely right. That's what I meant but somehow got the French char, cedilla = ¸ mixed up in my head :-S
>>>
>>>># I think US call "pound sign" - we call it "hash"
>>>
>>>We call it the "pound sign" in Canada too.
>>>
>>>>£ = "pound sign" (not on US keyboards I think)
>>>
>>>It's a special character. Usually keyboard "ALT-0163"
>>>