At Sign - Names in Other Languages

Names in Other Languages

In many languages other than English, although most typewriters included the symbol, the use of @ was less common before email became widespread in the mid-1990s. Consequently, it is often perceived in those languages as denoting "The Internet", computerization, or modernization in general.

• In Afrikaans, it is called "aapstert", meaning "monkey tail". Similar to the Dutch use of the word.
• In Arabic, it is at spelled آتْ (using the English pronunciation).
• In Armenian, it is "shnik" (շնիկ) which means puppy.
• In Azeri, it is at (using the English pronunciation).
• In Basque, it is "a bildua" (wrapped a).
• In Belarusian, it's called "сьлімак" ("helix", "snail")
• In Bosnian, it is "ludo a" ("crazy a").
• In Bulgarian, it is called кльомба ("klyomba", means nothing else) or маймунско а (maymunsko a "monkey A"), maimunka (маймунка), "little monkey".
• In Catalan, it is called 'arrova' (which means a unit of measure), or 'ensaïmada' (because of the similar shape of this food speciality)
• In Chinese
  • In mainland China, it is quan A (圈A), meaning "circled A / enclosed A" or hua A (花A), meaning "lacy A". Sometimes as xiao laoshu (小老鼠), meaning "little mouse". Nowadays, for most of China's youth, it is at (using the English pronunciation).
  • In Taiwan, it is xiao laoshu (小老鼠).
  • In Hong Kong and Macau, it is at (using the English pronunciation).
• In Croatian, it is most often referred to by the English word at. Informally, it is called a manki, coming from the local pronunciation of the English word, monkey. Note that the Croatian word for monkey, majmun, is not used to denote @.
• In Czech, and Slovak, it is called zavináč, which means (rollmops).
• In Danish, it is snabel-a ("(elephant's) trunk-a").
• In Dutch, it is called apenstaartje ("(little) monkey-tail").
• In Esperanto, it is called ĉe-signo ("at" – for the email use, with an address pronounced zamenhof ĉe esperanto punkto org), po-signo ("each"—refers only to the mathematical use) or heliko ("snail").
• in Estonian, it is also called at, meaning "@".
• In Faroese, it is kurla (sounds "curly"), hjá ("at"), tranta and snápil-a ("(elephant's) trunk-a").
• In Finnish, it was originally called taksamerkki ("fee sign") or yksikköhinnan merkki ("unit price sign"), but these names are long obsolete and now rarely understood. Nowadays, it is officially ät-merkki, according to the national standardization institute SFS; frequently also spelled "at-merkki". Other names include kissanhäntä, ("cat's tail") and miukumauku ("miaow-meow").
• In French, it is now officially the arobase but also called the arrobase, arrobe or a commercial (though this is most commonly used in French-speaking Canada, and should normally only be used when quoting prices; it should always be called arobase or, better yet, arobas when in an email address), and sometimes a dans le rond (a in the circle). Same origin as Spanish, which could be derived from Arabic, ar-roub. In France, it is also common (especially for the younger generations) to say "at" (using the English word) when spelling out an email address.
• In Georgian, it is "at" (using the English pronunciation), spelled ეთ–ი(კომერციული ეთ–ი).
• In German, it sometimes used to be referred to as Klammeraffe (meaning "spider monkey"). Klammeraffe refers to the similarity of @ to the tail of a monkey grabbing a branch. Lately, it is mostly called at just like in English
• In Greek, it is most often referred to as papaki (παπάκι), meaning "duckling," due to the similarity it bears with comic character designs for ducks.
• In Greenlandic, and Inuit language, it is called aajusaq meaning "a-like" or "something that looks like a"
• In Hebrew, it is colloquially known as shtrudel (שטרודל), due to the visual resemblance to a cross-section cut of a strudel. The normative term, invented by The Academy of the Hebrew Language, is krukhit (כרוכית), which is a Hebrew word for strudel.
• In Hindi, it is "at" (using the English pronunciation).
• In Hungarian, it is called kukac ("worm, maggot").
• In Icelandic, it is referred to as "at merkið ("the at-sign") or "hjá", which is a direct translation of at.
• In Indonesian, it is usually read et. Variations exist – especially if verbal communication is very noisy – such as: a bundar/a bulat (meaning "circle A"), a keong ("snail A"), and (very rarely) a monyet ("monkey A").
• In Italian, it is chiocciola ("snail") or a commerciale, sometimes at (pronounced more often, rarely ) or ad.
• In Japanese, it is called attomāku (アットマーク, "at mark"). The word is a wasei-eigo, a loan word from the English language, or Gairaigo, referring to foreign loan words in general. It is sometimes called naruto, because of Naruto whirlpools or food (Narutomaki).
• In Kazakh, it is officially called айқұлақ ("moon's ear"), sometimes unofficial as ит басы ("dog's head").
• In Korean, it is called golbaeng-i (골뱅이; bai top shells), a dialectal form of whelk.
• In Kyrgyz, it is officially called маймылча ("monkey"), sometimes unofficial as собачка ("doggy"), and et (using the English pronunciation).
• In Latvian, it is pronounced same as in English, but, since in Latvian is written as "e" not "a" (as in English), it's sometimes written as et.
• In Lithuanian, it is eta (equivalent to English at but with Lithuanian ending)
• In Luxembourgish it used to be called Afeschwanz (monkey-tail), but due to widespread use it is now pronounced 'at' like in English.
• In Macedonian, it is called мајмунче (pronun. my-moon-cheh, little monkey)
• In Malay, it is called alias when it is used in name, di when it is used in email. It is also commonly used to abbreviate atau which means or or either.
• In Morse Code, it is known as a "commat," consisting of the Morse code for the "A" and "C" run together as one character: (·--·-·). The symbol was added in 2004 for use with email addresses, the only change since World War I.
• In Norwegian, it is officially called krøllalfa ("curly alpha" or "alpha twirl"). (The alternate alfakrøll is also common, but is not its official name.) Sometimes Snabel a, @'s Swedish/Danish name, (trunk a, as in elephant's trunk) is used. Commonly, people will call the letter (as in English), particularly when giving their email address.
• In Persian, it is at (using the English pronunciation).
• In The Philippines, at means 'and' in Tagalog which could be used interchangeably in colloquial abbreviations. Ex: Magluto @ kumain. Cook and eat.
• In Portuguese, it is called 'arroba' (from the Arabic arrub). The word arroba is also used for a weight measure in Portuguese. While there are regional variations, one arroba is typically considered as representing approximately 32 pounds, 14.7 kg, and both the weight and the symbol are called arroba. In Brazil, cattle are still priced by the arroba – now rounded to 15 kg. (This occurs because the same sign was used to represent the same measure.)
• In Polish, it is called, both officially and commonly małpa (monkey); sometimes also małpka (little monkey).
• In Romanian, it is called colloquially (iliterately) Coadă de maimuţă (monkey-tail) or "a-rond". The latter is commonly used and it comes from a-round from its shape, but that is nothing like the mathematical symbol "A-rond" (rounded A). Some even call it "aron". Recommended reading: "at" or "la".

• In Russian, it is most commonly sobaka (собака) (dog). The name "dog" has come from Soviet computers DVK where the symbol had a short tail and similarity to a dog.
• In Serbian, it is called лудо А / ludo A (crazy A), мајмунче / majmunče (little monkey) or мајмун / majmun (monkey)
• In Slovenian, it is called afna (little monkey)
• In Spanish-speaking countries it denotes a pre-metric unit of weight. While there are regional variations in Spain and Mexico it is typically considered to represent approximately 25 pounds (11.5 kg), and both the weight and the symbol are called arroba. It has also been used as a unit of volume for wine and oil.
• In Swedish, it is called snabel-a ("(elephant's) trunk-a") or simply "at" like in the English language.
• In Swiss German, it is commonly called Affenschwanz ("monkey-tail").
• In Thai, it is commonly called at like English.
• In Turkish, it is et (using the English pronunciation). Also called as güzel a (beautiful a), özel a (special a), salyangoz (snail), koç (ram), kuyruklu a (a with a tail), çengelli a (a with hook) and kulak (ear).
• In Ukrainian, it is commonly called et ("at"), other names being ravlyk (равлик) (snail), slymachok (слимачок) (little slug), vukho (вухо) (ear) and pesyk (песик) (little dog).
• In Urdu, it is called at, identical to the English use of the symbol.
• In Uzbek, it is called kuchukcha which means doggy, a direct translation of this term from Russian.
• In Vietnamese, it is called a còng (bent a) in the North and a móc (hooked a) in the South.
• In Welsh, it is sometimes known as a malwen or malwoden (a snail).