Raymond Tomlinson [is] the computer programmer who in 1971 invented email as it is known today and in the process transformed the “at” sign—@—from a sparely used price symbol to a permanent fixture in the lives of millions of computer users around the world. [...]
The “at” sign, meanwhile, assumed a life of its own. It was known as the “commercial a” when it appeared on the American Underwood typewriter in 1884 and was understood to mean “at” or “at the rate of,” as in the ledger notation “one doz. widgets@34 cents ea.”
Once introduced into email, it took on a personality, and a variety of pet names. In French and Italian, it is called a snail. Israelis know it as a strudel, and Finns, having decided that it resembles a curled-up cat, call it miukumauku, or “the meow sign.”