By: Veronica Cobena

Published: September 2, 2026

As a designer, the ampersand might be my favorite character in typography. I've always been curious how differently it shows up across typefaces. What I never really thought about, though, was its history. Turns out the story is way more interesting than I expected, especially how the name itself came about.

The ampersand was actually the 27th letter of the alphabet at one point. When kids recited their ABCs, they kept going: "A, B, C… Z, and per se and." "Per se" basically meant "by itself," because the "&" was its own standalone word, not shorthand for anything else. Say that phrase fast enough over a few generations, and you get "ampersand." That's it. That's the whole origin story.

Before that though, the symbol started as a ligature, formed by the Latin word "et" (meaning "and") with the E and T joined into one stroke. Over time that fused shape got smoothed and stylized until it eventually stopped looking like two letters at all.

What keeps it interesting for me as a designer is not just the history, but what type designers still do with it today. The ampersand is basically the one glyph in a typeface where the rules relax. Every other letter has a job: behave, stay legible, sit quietly inside a word. The ampersand doesn't answer to any of that. Look at an italic ampersand next to its roman counterpart in the same typeface, and half the time they don't even look related. The italic often circles back to that old handwritten "et" ligature, loops and all, while the roman version gets squared off and modern. Some foundries even let their lettering artists have fun on this one character.

It's such a small glyph, but it somehow says more about a typeface's personality than almost any letter does.

In a recent Town & Country piece, Adam Gopnik makes an interesting point about how the ampersand connects, among many other things, double names. It 'always implies a happy informality of attachment, something warmer than contractual agreement.' You see that a lot across different industries too, where two names joined by an ampersand signal collaboration rather than just a merger.

It also shows up in some genuinely iconic logos: Tiffany & Co, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Dolce & Gabbana, H&M. But my personal favorite has to be &Walsh, the NYC creative agency. They don't just use the ampersand as part of the name, but as the logo mark itself. It becomes their signature. One glyph turns into an identity.

If you have a favorite ampersand in a particular font, or just want to talk type, feel free to reach out at veronica@primestudio.com.