Useless fact
What is the official name of the hashtag symbol?
The formal name for the symbol commonly known as the hashtag or pound sign (#) is the octothorpe.
The symbol "#" has many common names, including the pound sign, number sign, hash, and hashtag. However, its formal typographical name is the octothorpe. The term was invented in the 1960s by employees at Bell Telephone Laboratories, who were modifying the telephone keypad to include new symbols for electronic systems. An engineer named Don Macpherson reportedly coined the word by combining "octo-", referring to the eight points on the symbol's perimeter, with "thorpe", in honor of the famous Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe. Another story suggests it was named after a town or was simply a humorous invention. Despite its playful origins, the word became standardized in the telecommunications industry and is now widely recorded in major dictionaries. Today, while most people refer to it as a hashtag due to its popularity on social media, the term octothorpe remains its official, albeit lesser-known, name in typography and engineering.
Why this is true — The term 'octothorpe' is recognized by major dictionaries like Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary as the formal name for the '#' symbol.
Sources
- octothorpe - definition and meaning Dictionary.com