Whatever you call it, I don't think the # symbol/key should ever be called a "hashtag". A hashtag is a tag that begins with a hash (#) character.
The # symbol is officially called "Number Sign" by Unicode and usually called a hash, or in the US a "number sign" or a "pound sign".
The # and * on a telephone were originally added by Bell Labs in the 1960s when they were developing touch tone technology. The two new symbols were going to be the greek letters alpha and omega, but Bell wanted to use characters from ASCII so that it would be easier to import telephone data into computers and also wanted to use symbols that existed on typewriters. The # and * fit both of those descriptions.
The naming, however, was another story. * is officially called "star" on phones because Bell employees figured too many people had trouble spelling (and pronouncing) the word "asterisk". The star on phones is conventionally printed as a 6-pointed asterisk with one of the lines being horizontal. The asterisk on computers and typewriters is typically 5-pointed.
As for the # symbol, in the US when # is used as a prefix (outside of a hashtag) it means "number" (as in "I'm #1") and if it is used as a suffix it means pounds (weight) as an alternative shorthand to writing the abbreviation "lb" (as in "order 5# of flour"). In other countries it is known as a "hash" symbol. And it is not to be confused with the musical symbol for sharp, which is similar but not the same. Calling this new key on a phone the "number key" would be confusing because 0-9 were also "number keys". And calling it "pound" could be confused with the weight or the currency which were both irrelevant to its use on phones. So they invented a new name for it: "octatherp" whose spelling evolved into "octotherp", with some at Bell later choosing to spell it "octothorpe" in honor of Jim Thorpe (Olympic athlete).
None of those names for # took hold and still to this day you never know what it's going to be called. At my old job we'd have customers from the UK confused because the automated voicemail system told them to "press the pound key" and they were like "but there's no £ key on my phone!"
Similarly US customers were confused when the UK office voicemail system told them to press the hash key, because (prior to Twitter popularizing it) most people over here never heard of that name for the # symbol.
They actually had focus groups and tested these different names, if you can believe it. It was originally going to be called the "diamond" key because the little box in the middle of the # is shaped like a diamond. The Bell engineers apparently really hated that name and truly were too smart for their own good when they went with the ridiculous "octatherp". Octa/Octo of course means 8, but the "-therp" suffix was nonsense. According to a book I read, the engineers thought the "-therp" sounded "sort of Greek-ish" and would add some "scientific stature" to the name of their new invention.
Whatever you call it, I don't think the # symbol/key should ever be called a "hashtag". A hashtag is a tag that begins with a hash (#) character.
The # symbol is officially called "Number Sign" by Unicode and usually called a hash, or in the US a "number sign" or a "pound sign".
The # and * on a telephone were originally added by Bell Labs in the 1960s when they were developing touch tone technology. The two new symbols were going to be the greek letters alpha and omega, but Bell wanted to use characters from ASCII so that it would be easier to import telephone data into computers and also wanted to use symbols that existed on typewriters. The # and * fit both of those descriptions.
The naming, however, was another story. * is officially called "star" on phones because Bell employees figured too many people had trouble spelling (and pronouncing) the word "asterisk". The star on phones is conventionally printed as a 6-pointed asterisk with one of the lines being horizontal. The asterisk on computers and typewriters is typically 5-pointed.
As for the # symbol, in the US when # is used as a prefix (outside of a hashtag) it means "number" (as in "I'm #1") and if it is used as a suffix it means pounds (weight) as an alternative shorthand to writing the abbreviation "lb" (as in "order 5# of flour"). In other countries it is known as a "hash" symbol. And it is not to be confused with the musical symbol for sharp, which is similar but not the same. Calling this new key on a phone the "number key" would be confusing because 0-9 were also "number keys". And calling it "pound" could be confused with the weight or the currency which were both irrelevant to its use on phones. So they invented a new name for it: "octatherp" whose spelling evolved into "octotherp", with some at Bell later choosing to spell it "octothorpe" in honor of Jim Thorpe (Olympic athlete).
None of those names for # took hold and still to this day you never know what it's going to be called. At my old job we'd have customers from the UK confused because the automated voicemail system told them to "press the pound key" and they were like "but there's no £ key on my phone!"
Similarly US customers were confused when the UK office voicemail system told them to press the hash key, because (prior to Twitter popularizing it) most people over here never heard of that name for the # symbol.
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As a (confused) Brit, I always wondered why Americans called it the 'pound' key, but was too lazy to find out. Very informative, thank you.
However, I can't quite believe that those clever folks at Bell thought people would struggle with 'asterisk' yet be totally fine with 'octatherp'.
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They actually had focus groups and tested these different names, if you can believe it. It was originally going to be called the "diamond" key because the little box in the middle of the # is shaped like a diamond. The Bell engineers apparently really hated that name and truly were too smart for their own good when they went with the ridiculous "octatherp". Octa/Octo of course means 8, but the "-therp" suffix was nonsense. According to a book I read, the engineers thought the "-therp" sounded "sort of Greek-ish" and would add some "scientific stature" to the name of their new invention.
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Thanks!
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Have fun with the game and a great weekend! :)
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