What is the name for the spanish question mark?  All I can find is the
upside down question mark or the inverted question mark.

Hello quelrod,

The name of the Spanish question mark is "principio de interrogación".
 "Principio y fin de interrogación" -- beginning and ending question
marks -- are mentioned more often on Spanish-language pages, but you
can also see them on these English pages:

"Common Marks of Punctuation"
Your School's Spanish Website
http://www.ctspanish.com/words/punctuation.htm

"Written Spanish #1: Punctuate It!"
About.com: Spanish Language
http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa071999.htm

- justaskscott


Search terms used, individually and in combinations, on Google:

spanish
"question mark"
"inverted question mark"
"upside down question mark"
interrogación
principio
exclamación

---

Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 09 Dec 2003 11:44 PST

A fellow Google Answers Researcher has told me that when she learned
Spanish, she was taught that the inverted question mark was called
"abre interrogación".(Note the similarity between "abre" and "abrir"
from Crabcakes's comment.)

So this is another alternative answer to the question.

Hi quelrod,

In Latin America, the more common usage for "question mark" is "signo
de interrogación" The begining (opening) question mark is called
"signo de interrogación de abrir" or "abrir un signo de interrogacion"
and the closing one is called "signo de interrogación de cerrar" or
"cerrar un signo de interrogacion" . If you were speaking of both, as
in "Be sure to use an opening and closing question mark" you would use
"signo de interrogación de abrir y cerrar).

No matter which form you use, it is lengthy in Spanish!
http://www.geocities.com/megaryu/Ortografia/ortografia.htm