Email Day
April 23
Every April 23, Email Day honors Ray Tomlinson, the engineer whose curiosity changed how we communicate.
- Email Day is April 23, the birthday of Ray Tomlinson, the computing legend who sent the first email.
- In an exclusive conversation, his daughter describes him as a kind, humble engineer who didn’t see email as his greatest achievement – and was known at home as “the original Google.”
- The @ symbol he chose has been around for centuries and is now one of the few truly universal signs. Read on to discover what it’s called in 25 languages.
“It seemed like
a neat idea.”
In 1971, Ray Tomlinson sent the first email between two computers connected to the ARPANET. He chose the @ symbol to separate the user from the machine.
Years later, when asked about the invention, he said simply:
“It seemed like a neat idea.”
That neat idea now powers billions of messages every day. More than half of the world’s population relies on email for work, local and national government, and for staying connected to the people who matter most.
Personal, professional, serious, lighthearted – email is all of that. It moves ideas, decisions, and emotions across the world in seconds.
How a simple experiment became our most powerful communication tool
It’s hard to imagine the world before email. In 1971, the internet itself was still a novelty, and few people had personal computers.
Ray Tomlinson wanted to test whether a message could travel between two computers connected to the ARPANET, the early network that would later become the internet. At the time, people could communicate via electronic mail only on the same machine.
To make it work, he chose the @ symbol to create an address format that still defines email today. “It was the most obvious choice. We're talking about a user who's at some computer. It just made sense,” he explained.
The content of that first email? Tomlinson said it was “entirely forgettable,” but likely a string of characters like “QWERTYUIOP.”
But the moment wasn’t forgettable.
What makes that first email even more remarkable is that Tomlinson wasn’t on assignment to invent a global communication system. He was just tinkering.
Tomlinson recalled about inventing email: “It seemed like a neat idea, like an interesting thing to do with a computer and a network. And so I just did it.”
That small experiment would go on to power governments, economies, classrooms, hospitals, friendships, and families around the world.
4/23
Why is Email Day April 23?
April 23 marks the birthday of Ray Tomlinson. Email Day is a tribute to the engineer behind the first networked email. It recognizes the invention itself and the curiosity and ingenuity that made it possible.
EXCLUSIVE
The man behind
the inbox
He was “the original Google.”
Did Ray Tomlinson fully grasp how important his invention was going to be? In an exclusive interview with ZeroBounce, his daughter, Suzanne Tomlinson Schaffer, reflected on the man who gave us email.
When she first learned of Email Day, she couldn’t deny that it’s “pretty cool.” But she pointed out that her father didn’t see email as his defining achievement.
“Dad was very well respected in his field, not just for email, but for all of his accomplishments,” Suzanne told us. “He didn't think of creating email as a challenge. I think he was prouder of some of the other things he did,” she added.
To those who worked with him, Tomlinson was known for his openness.
“He was warm and kind-hearted,” Suzanne describes him. “His coworkers appreciated his open-door policy and his willingness to let people bounce ideas off of him.”
At home, Suzanne recalls, “he was an infinitely patient tutor and so knowledgeable you could ask him anything, and he would have an answer for you. My sister likes to refer to him as ‘the original Google.”
Ray Tomlinson received numerous awards through the years. In 2012, he was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame. The board noted: “Tomlinson's email program brought about a complete revolution, fundamentally changing the way people communicate.”
An MIT graduate, Ray Tomlinson ranks number four on the institution’s list of top 150 innovators. He passed away in 2016, at the age of 74. The simple idea he set in motion continues to shape the way we communicate.
“He had a unique sense of humor and incredible intellect. Although he received an enormous amount of recognition for the creation of email, he always remained very modest.”
- Ray’s daughter, Suzanne Tomlinson Schaffer
Email Day has been recognized by
What does Ray Tomlinson’s “neat idea” look like today?
Despite the rise of messaging apps and AI tools, email remains deeply woven into how we work and live. We check our inbox before getting out of bed, answer messages between meetings, and glance at notifications even on vacation.
In our recent research, we found:
- 93% of people say they use email every day.
- 60% say email is their preferred channel for work communication.
- 42% of Gen Z professionals say email is their favorite way to communicate at work.
- 8 in 10 people admit to checking email during personal moments, including romantic dates.
- 63% of Gen Zers don’t believe email will be obsolete in 10 years.
Job offers arrive in the inbox.
Families stay connected across continents.
Ideas travel instantly around the globe.
All because something once “seemed like a neat idea.”
The @ symbol around the world
Did you know that the @ sign has been around for centuries?
Some historians trace its origins back to medieval scribes, who used it as a shorthand for the Latin word ad, meaning "to" or "toward."
By the 1500s, merchants were using it in trade to represent units of measure — a meaning still preserved today in the Spanish and Portuguese word arroba.
When Ray Tomlinson was building the first email system in 1971, the @ symbol was already sitting on keyboards, but rarely used. He chose it for a simple reason: it made sense to separate the user from the host.
That almost casual decision gave the symbol an entirely new role. In 2010, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) added the @ symbol to its design collection, recognizing it as a defining symbol of the computer age.
As senior curator Paola Antonelli later wrote:
"The appropriation and reuse of a pre-existing, even ancient symbol is by all means an act of design of extraordinary elegance and economy. The @ symbol is now part of the very fabric of life all over the world."
As email spread around the world, people began to make sense of the symbol in their own way – and came up with some surprisingly imaginative descriptions for it.
Depending on where you are, it might be a snail, a monkey, a dog, an elephant's trunk, or even a pastry.
But regardless of language or culture, the @ sign has become a universal symbol we all recognize.
What do you call @?
English
at
Refers to location or direction
Spanish &
Portuguese
arroba
Originally a unit of weight
French
arobase
Derived from the same root as arroba
German
Klammeraffe ("spider monkey")
Evokes a monkey clinging to a branch
Italian
chiocciola ("snail")
A common, intuitive comparison
Chinese
小老鼠 ("little mouse")
A creative and charming nickname
Russian
sobachka ("little dog")
A familiar, affectionate name
Polish
małpa ("monkey")
Another playful animal reference
Swedish
snabel-a ("elephant trunk A")
Imagines the letter A with a trunk
Vietnamese
"bent A" / "hooked A"
A direct description of its form
Romanian
coadă de maimuță ("monkey tail")
Close to the French "arobase", but with its own local flavor
Japanese
アットマーク (atto māku)
A phonetic adaptation of "at mark"
Korean
골뱅이 (golbaengi)
Refers to a type of sea snail
Turkish
et işareti ("at sign")
A straightforward, functional name
Greek
παπάκι (papaki)
Means "little duck"
Dutch
apenstaartje ("little monkey tail")
"Little" makes it feel more endearing
Hebrew
שְׁטרוּדֶל (shtrudel)
Named after the swirled pastry
Hindi
ऐट (at)
Borrowed from English
Arabic
آت (at)
Borrowed phonetically from English
Czech
zavináč, rollmop ("pickled herring")
Not just any herring, a pickled one
Finnish
kissanhäntä ("cat's tail")
One of the cutest names
Hungarian
kukac ("worm" / "maggot")
Unsual and memorable
Estonian
ätt / "turing" (like a pretzel)
A playful visual nickname
Welsh
malwoden ("snail")
Nature-inspired and poetic
Upcoming dates for Email Day
2026
Thursday
April 23rd
2027
Friday
April 23rd
2028
Sunday
April 23rd
2029
Monday
April 23rd
2030
Tuesday
April 23rd
Why celebrate
Email Day
Email Day is a moment to pause and recognize the role this simple invention plays in our everyday lives.
It’s also a reminder of something bigger:
World-changing ideas don’t always begin as master plans.Sometimes they start with curiosity.
On April 23, take a moment to send a thoughtful message. Reconnect with someone. Share an idea.
And remember the man who sent the first email.
Thank you, Ray.
