I call it (on those rare occasions when it requires naming) “the tilde key”. If forced to name the ` character, I’d probably call it “open single quote”. Never occurred to me that it was a grave (and yes, took 5 years of French, so I know of the accents grave and aigu), because no, I didn’t know one could (easily) place it over a letter using a computer.
The whole family is tildes, but in different keyboard layouts they’re in different keys (for ES-international, ~ is in AltGr+4, ´is betwen ñ and ç, is between p and +, ^ is shift+).
I’ve also been known to refer to ~ as a “hat”: “n-with-a-hat” seems to be a description of ñ which many Anglos understand better than “n-with-a-tilde”.
Squiggly line key, hey I’m not trying to teach anyone the proper name of this thing, nor do I even know it, nor is it practical to know as so few people seem to know so you can’t use the term to relay information. I’m just trying to relay the information in a way that the other person can understand and everyone seems to get what the Squiggly line key is so that is the best term to use IMHO.
I can honestly say I’ve never used that key and if the OP hadn’t given a map to it I would not have found it.
tilde when speaking English, grave when speaking French.
I use the US-International keyboard and use the key whenever I write in French … à è …
My cat’s name is Breña (yes, after the Perfect Circle song), so it comes in handy then, too!
Ooh, this would confuse me. “N hat” to me means “n” with a “^” on top. Also known as the “unit normal vector”, in all those physics and engineering classes, and now at work.
I suspect most of the people who work with unit normal vectors would know what a tilde is, though. You’re going to have to estimate your audience to know which to say.