I never heard anyone call a symbol or key 'splat' until taking database courses in college (15 years ago). Instead of saying 'asterisk' or 'star' all the time, they would read a SQL query like 'select splat from table...'

I'm pretty sure that it was another class at the same time where I picked up 'bang' for 'exclamation point'. Looking back, I'm surprised that both had eluded me for so long.