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Comment by will_work4tears | Hacker News Reader

MM is often used to denote millions, but I don't think BB is used to denote Billions. Do you have a cite that indicates otherwise, because I don't see it on a quick search.

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M = 1000

MM = 1000 * 1000

NMM = 1000 * 1000 * 1000

pp = pages

ll = lines

so it's a natural logical extrapolation to go for

bb = billions

http://www.riskglossary.com/link/mm.htm

If the analogy is billions to millions, BB = Billion * Billion

I would suggest googling "$1BB". They're both rather commonly used.

That being said, MM is more necessary because "M" also denotes 1000, and can thus be ambiguous.

Interesting. Just to clarify why I asked, I googled "MM millions" and saw the answer right away but a search for "BB billions" came up rather empty (I read the first result and skimmed the title and snippet for the first page). "1BB" came up with bed and breakfast results. "$1BB" did have some results, though some were like me that this was the first time seeing it and they were asking about it. The other sites are blogs and nothing like Bloomberg.

Anyway, thanks, next time I see it, I guess I will not be confused.

Etymylogically, "million" derives via French from Italian "milione", the augmentative of "mille", thus a thousand thousand (MM). In British English "billion" originally meant "a million million" a la French "milliard", but has shifted to America "thousand million".

Even if you hadn't seen it before, it's clear enough in context.

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