It was roughly my generation which here came into touch with the computers as early as in childhood (we were of course a decades or more behind the West back then), so we quite naturally took over the "terminology" of the "pioneers", who as everywhere tended to be professionals with a particular sense of humor.

So we mostly call the # sign by the diminuitive of "mesh", some call it the diminuitive of "garden" (probably indicating also to a fence, which is a similar, related word). Recently I found out that my 9 years old son uses a completely different word for the # sign, I don't remember what it was exctly but I was quite confused.

It was very confusing for me too when I first came across the # being referred to as "pound".

What is quite funny is that the @ sign in both Slovak and Czech languages is now exclusively called by a word which before indicated a certain fish food, which was originally clearly just a joking name given by the "pioneers". Given the wide usage of e-mail among "ordinary" people, this expression is undoubtedly going to stay.

On the other hand, we still don't have a satisfactory local name for the & sign.

Jan