The pronunciation of "#" as "pound" is common in the US but a

bad idea; Commonwealth Hackish has its own, rather more

apposite use of "pound sign" (confusingly, on British

keyboards the pound graphic happens to replace "#"; thus

Britishers sometimes call "#" on a US-ASCII keyboard "pound",

compounding the American error). The US usage derives from an

old-fashioned commercial practice of using a "#" suffix to tag

pound weights on bills of lading. The character is usually

pronounced "hash" outside the US.