What @ means, where it came from, and how to type it — click to copy.
Click to copy · U+0040
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Character | @ |
| Unicode code point | U+0040 |
| Unicode name | COMMERCIAL AT |
| Unicode block | Basic Latin (standard ASCII) |
| Category | Special character |
@ shows up in Italian and Spanish merchant ledgers as far back as the 14th–16th centuries, used as commercial shorthand for "at the rate of" — writing "10 @ $5" instead of spelling out "10 units at $5 each." Its shape likely comes from a scribal ligature of the Latin word ad (toward/at), looped into a single stroke to save time and ink.
The symbol sat mostly idle for centuries outside of invoices and price lists until 1971, when American engineer Ray Tomlinson needed a way to separate a person's username from the name of the computer they used on ARPANET, the US government network that became the basis for the internet. He chose @ specifically because it barely appeared in personal names, was already sitting unused on every keyboard, and read naturally as "user at machine" — a choice that made @ the defining character of every email address since.
| Platform | Works? |
|---|---|
| Instagram / X / TikTok | Yes — but triggers a clickable @mention rather than staying plain text |
| Discord | Yes — same mention behavior when followed by a valid username |
| Yes | |
| Roblox username | No — letters, numbers, underscore only |
| PlayStation Network / Xbox Live gamertag | No — alphanumeric only |
| Method | Input |
|---|---|
| Keyboard (Windows & Mac, US layout) | Shift+2 |
| Windows Alt code | Alt+64 |
| HTML entity | @ or @ |
| CSS content | content: "\0040" |
@ is one of dozens of punctuation and typography symbols in the full special characters library.
Browse Special Characters →Historically @ meant "at the rate of" in commercial accounting (10 units @ $5 each). Since 1971 its dominant meaning has been "at" in an email address (user@host), and on social platforms typing @ before a name usually creates a clickable mention.
American engineer Ray Tomlinson chose @ in 1971 to separate a username from a host machine name on ARPANET, the precursor to the internet. He picked it because it was already on keyboards, rarely appeared in personal names, and read naturally as "user at host."
It's a standard key on every keyboard — Shift+2 on a US layout, on both Windows and Mac. In HTML, use the entity @ or @.
Instagram, X, Discord, TikTok, and most social platforms reuse the email convention: @ followed by a username is parsed as a reference to that account and turned into a clickable link or notification, rather than staying as plain text.