Octothorpe! The Original Name For The #Hashtag

#hashtag this and #hasgtag that. They’re in almost every social media post we see today. However the famous symbol # was once referred to as the “pound” symbol.

Where did it originate from?

According to lexico.com in North Anerica it’s used in context such as go to question #2. In music the symbol is known as a sharp note.

The name octothorpe is said to have been invented by a Bell Laboratories employee in the 1960’s to honor the American athlete and Olympic gold medallist Jim Thorpe.

Jim Thorpe

Surprisingly the first hashtag was first brought to Twitter on August 23, 2007 by Chris Messina. Chris wrote an blog post expressing his interest in using hashtags when posting on social media.

Tagging when posting on social media also allows you to express words with an #throat punch in your sentance.

#hashtag, #writing, #blogging basically any word can become a hashtag.

Some of the top hashtags can be found here.

#peace

#love

#keephasing

Gain the advantage,

Alicia Osmera