I've been trying to recall how we call in in French; trying to recall how I would have brought it up while speaking to somebody.

Remembering conversations with my assistant, we definitely said trois petits points. The colon is deux petits points and the semi-colon is point virgule. Though I don't know if that is the official term for them.

It's like the @ sign. People will always say "A commercial" instead of "arobas".