The symbol is two parallel, vertical lines. I don't believe that it is directly related to the equal symbol; although it is possible that the vertical position was chosen precisely to avoid confusion.
Yes, there are lots of symbols in maths, or math as we say in the U.S.
There are the basic ones, such as =, +, -, x, /
Respectively, these are "equal", "plus", "minus", "times/multiply",...