What is the name of the '&' symbol, which is used to mean 'and'?

The name of the “&” symbol, used to mean “and,” is “ampersand.”

The ampersand began as a ligature—a pair of letters written together—representing the Latin word et, meaning “and.” Roman scribes used joined forms of E and T as early as the first century CE. The shape gradually became more stylized as Latin handwriting and typefaces developed, eventually producing the modern character “&.”

Its unusual English name comes from the phrase “and per se and.” When children recited the alphabet, letters that could also stand alone as words were traditionally described “per se,” meaning “in itself.” Saying “and per se and” quickly led to the pronunciation “ampersand,” which was established in English by the 19th century. It is not named after the French mathematician André-Marie Ampère.

Today, ampersands are common in company names such as Johnson & Johnson and in abbreviations such as R&D. In HTML, the character has a special role and is written as “&” when it must appear as ordinary text.