If you see the following:

x = √y

… would you pronounce it as “x, two parallel horizontal lines, V with a left hook, y”?

The symbols have a meaning that’s unrelated to their appearance. It’s the same in APL. The “square c” is just like “V with a left hook”.

And octothorp (#) is “eight-something”. Circumflex (^) is “bent around”. Names of most characters only sound academic because we don’t know Latin and Greek too good.

“√” isn’t even a natural character, it’s a graphical delineator between an index and a radicand, similar to ÷ or % forms of division. By “obelus” (sharpened stick) do you mean dot above and below a line, a percent, a dagger or just a line?

Sure there will be enough confusion with ~10-30 extra symbols that aren’t even on a keyboard and may not have a single meaning or a name.

???

The point is, within the programming language, they do have a single meaning and a a name.