Know Names of keyboard symbols in Computer Keyboard

We are all familiar with the QWERTY layout of modern computer keyboard. The QWERTY name comes from the order of the first six keyboard keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard. This layout was devised and created in the early 1870’s by Christopher Latham Sholes, a newspaper editor, printer and also is the inventor of the first typewriter. In our day to day life, we used different symbols and special characters of our computer keyboard to perform various tasks. But most of us don’t know the symbol meaning and name of the symbols in our keyboard. 

There is not much use to remember all the symbol names in the keyboard for our day today activities. But things may change if you want to explain about a technical problem in your keyboard with a technician. Sometimes, you may have to mention the name of keyboard keys in your conversation. Here is the list of common computer keyboard symbols with it’s symbol meaning in plain English.

keyboard symbols

Computer keyboard key explanation

For programmers, these symbols are essential for their coding purpose. In anyways, for coding purpose, or want to discuss technical problems with an expert, or just want to learn the names of the keyboard symbols, here is a list of the symbols that commonly available in a computer keyboard.

Symbols in Keyboard – Explanation and its use

Sl. No. Symbol Name

1 & ampersand or and

2 ‘ apostrophe or single quote

3 * asterisk

4 @ at

5 ` back quote

6 back slash

7 { } braces or curly braces

8 [ ] brackets

9 ^ carat

10 } close brace

11 ] close bracket

12 ) close parenthesis

13 : colon

14 , comma

15 $ dollar

16 = equal

17 ! exclamation mark

18 > greater than

19 < less than

20 – minus or hyphen

21 { open brace

22 [ open bracket

23 ( open parenthesis

24 ( ) parenthesis

25 % percent

26 | pipe or bar

27 + plus

28 # pound or number sign or sharp or hash

29 “ quote

30 ; semi-colon

31 / slash or forward slash

32 ~ tilde

33 _ underscore

34 ? Question Mark

35 . Period, dot or Full Stop

36 F1 to F12 Function keys