(Bloomberg) -- When the @Twitter handle asked followers earlier today to explain the meaning behind their Twitter handles, it got a slew of responses -- including from its founder, Jack Dorsey.

Tweet the meaning behind your Twitter handle. We'll start. We're Twitter.

And the meaning behind your name originally came from a dictionary: short inconsequential bursts of information; chirps from birds.

Later, though, in response to a question from a follower about the word “TWTR” -- the company’s ticker -- Jack delved a little deeper into the thinking behind the name of the now-$22.8 billion-dollar company.

That’s a ticker symbol. We did shorten Twitter to twttr for a moment to refer to the texting short code we wanted to use: 89887. Problem was Teen People owned it (TXTTP) so we stuck with 40404 and added the vowels back in, thus losing our web2.0 cool. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A short code is a five- or six-digit number that acts as a shortcut to let cell-phone users opt in quickly to access added services -- for example, offers or promotions -- instead of using the usual seven digits (plus area code).

Dorsey’s first ever tweet, sent March 21, 2006 said “Just setting up my twttr.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Clementine Fletcher in New York at cfletcher5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah Kopit at skopit@bloomberg.net, Nathan Crooks

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