Rollo: in English they call it a 'score', probably because it was, as you say, for counting, usually of things. The usage is now archaic, but we still have phrases like 'keeping score' and 'four score and ten'. A 'score' was twenty, and is called that because the way to make a mark on a tally or counting stick was to cut a little gouge called a 'score'. We still use 'scoring' for those diagonal slashes cut into pork crackling, or a rising loaf of bread. Tallies are a whole other subject.
