Depressingly, common usage now seems to be that # is pronounced "hashtag"; even Wikipedia says this: Number sign - also known as Gate, Hashtag, Hash (Key) or O

Depressingly, common usage now seems to be that # is pronounced "hashtag"; even Wikipedia says this: Number sign - also known as Gate, Hashtag, Hash (Key) or Octothorpe, amoungst others Note the order... I can only think that most people pre-Twitter had no idea that # was called a hash and thus hashtag's victory, of sorts, wasn't really that much of an achievement - essentially a change in popular conception from "I don't know what that thingy is called" to "The hashtag thingy". (I also love "octothorpe", but I would only use that name to be deliberately confusing.)