etymology of octothorpe

[bluelava]

Around the office, we've stumbled across a difficult problem. What's the etymology of the word "octothorpe"? OED lists nothing, and no other dictionary lists anything significant.

One coworker claims it is a cartography symbol for "village", however this seems dubious and he can find no supporting documentation.

We've also found claims that Bell Labs invented the term -- http://www.strowger.net/tel_tech_octothorpe.html -- but there's no verification of this.

Even more importantly to us -- what was this symbol called before the term "octothorpe" came around? (Assuming it is a 1960s term.) The symbol was around on old typewriter keyboards long before then.

It would be nice if we could get some assistance in this debate.

[RealityChuck]

It was called the "at sign" or "commercial at" or "pound sign." Cecil wrote a column on it, but the search engine is slow today.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

This is long, but it mentions it inside:

http://www.english-usage.com/faq.html

And what kind of uber-geeks do you work with that you would actually be using this word? :D

[tomndebb]

It was called the "at sign" or "commercial at" The "at sign," @ is different than the #, also known as (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=444244#post444244):
octothorpe,
pound sign, (pound from produce and meat weight, not from the British pound £)
number,
space,
sharp,
tic-tac-toe,
non add,
fracture.