Unfortunately, I remember calling it that too once upon a time. I think the telephone company has changed us with the advent of the hugely annoying voice menu systems.

>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"
>>>>