In the United States, @ is usually spoken as "at," though it's official name is "commercial at." The at symbol, so ubiquitous today because of its use in email addresses, originated in commerce. The precise etymology of the sign is not known, but variations have been used in retail and accounting for centuries, where it's used to communicate cost per item. Now, it's not uncommon to see grocery store receipts with the at symbol used to communicate exactly the same thing: 2.45lbs Fuji Apples @ $1.99lb = $4.88 means that the unit price for Fujis is $1.99 per pound.
Since 1972 the at sign has been working double duty. Ray Tomlinson is credited with using @ to indicate the location of a user on a specific host, and the format of the email address was born. This created a new problem for non-English speakers, though. Since the word "at" and the symbol @ match so nicely in our language, English speakers may take for granted the fact that in other languages, the name for such a funny little symbol may not be so obvious.
In our continual quest to educate and inform, here is wiseGEEK's own collection of how @ translates to English from a variety of the world's languages.
| Language | Word | Translation | IMAGE |
| Croatian | manki | monkey |  |
| Czech | zavinac | "rollmops," a way of serving pickled herring |  |
| Danish | snabel | elephant's trunk |  |
| Dutch | apenstaartje | little monkey tail |  |
| Finnish | miau, or miaumau | "meow marks" |  |
| German | klammeraffe | spider monkey | |
| Greek | papaki | duckling |  |
| Hebrew | krukhit | strudel |  |
| Hungarian | kukac | worm, mite, or maggot |  |
| Italian | chioccoiola | snail |  |
| Mandarin Chinese--Taiwan | xiao lao shu | little mouse |  |
| Norwegian | grisehale | pig's tail |  |
| Russian | sobaka | dog |  |
| Swedish | kanelbulle | cinnamon bun |  |
| Thai | ai tua yiukyiu | the wiggling worm-like character |  |
| Turkish | kulak | ear |  |