What Is the @ Symbol?
The @ symbol — also called the at sign or at symbol — is one of the most recognizable characters on the keyboard today. You’ll find it in every email address and social media handle, but it wasn’t always this famous.
In English, we tend to be pretty literal: “at sign” or “at symbol” is the standard. But in other languages, this curly character takes on imaginative identities, from “monkey’s tail” to “snail.” Let’s take a deeper look to fully wrap our minds around this icon of iconography.
A Brief History of the @ Symbol
The @ is older than you might think. Linguists trace it back at least to medieval scribes, who may have used it as shorthand for the Latin preposition ad (meaning “to” or “toward”). Another theory is that it began as a stylized version of the French à (“at”).
By the 16th century, Venetian merchants were using @ as an abbreviation for amphora, a clay vessel used as a unit of measurement for wine and grain. A 1536 Florentine letter contains one of the first known uses of @ in this sense.
Later, it became shorthand for “at the rate of” in commerce, and eventually found a home on typewriters as the “commercial a.”
The real turning point came in 1971, when American engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first email. He needed a symbol to separate the username from the host computer and chose @ because, as he put it, “it’s the only preposition on the keyboard.” From that moment, @ was reborn as the symbol of electronic communication.
In 2010, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York even added @ to its collection — not as a physical object, but as a design icon that reshaped communication.
Common Uses of the @ Symbol
- Email addresses: Separates the username from the domain (e.g., user@domain.com)
- Social media handles: Used to tag or mention other users
- Commerce: Still occasionally seen in accounting or invoices as “at the rate of”
Fun Fact: Depending on your keyboard language, @ doesn’t always live in the same spot…
- On U.S. keyboards, it’s Shift + 2.
- On German keyboards, it’s Alt Gr + Q.
- On French AZERTY keyboards, it’s Alt Gr + 0.
- On Spanish keyboards, it’s Alt Gr + 2.
So even typing @ can be a different experience depending on where in the world you are.
Different Names for the @ Symbol Around the World
This is where things get colorful. Around the world, the name for the @ symbol has been reimagined through food, animals and other playful imagery.
- France, Italy, South Korea: Snail
- Russia: Little dog
- Germany, Poland, South Africa, Indonesia: Monkey’s tail
- China: Mouse
- Czech Republic: Rollmops (rolled pickled herring)
- Israel: Strudel
- Wales: Little lamb’s tail
- Spain, Portugal: Arroba (a historical unit of weight)
- Denmark, Sweden: Elephant’s trunk
- Kazakhstan: Moon’s ear
- Finland: Curled-up cat (miukumauku literally means “sign of the meow”)
- Greece: Little duck
- Netherlands: Curly A or monkey’s tail
- Hungary: Worm
- Norway: Pig’s tail
- Turkey: Ear
Good To Know: These names aren’t official dictionary entries — they reflect how everyday speakers interpret the @’s shape in their own language and culture.
Why the @ Symbol Matters
The @ sign is more than just a piece of punctuation. It’s a living example of how language, technology, and culture intertwine. From medieval shorthand to global email infrastructure, it’s traveled centuries and continents.
And unlike most symbols, it’s earned a folkloric life of its own — inspiring playful nicknames in dozens of languages and even securing a place in a modern art museum.
Final Thoughts
So what does the @ symbol mean? The answer depends on where you are. In English, it’s the straightforward “at sign.” In Germany, it’s a monkey’s tail. In Finland, it’s the sign of the meow. And everywhere, it’s the tiny character that made email — and much of the internet — possible.