Chiming in as someone who has lived decades in both South East US and North East US. I've also never heard () called "brackets" only "parentheses". This includes in and out of programming circles.
I assumed the comment saying "parens: ()" was talking about US, but the replies seem to be interpreting the opposite.
BODMAS for me too, although the "O" always confused me, the "E" standing for "exponent" always made more sense to me than the O" standing for "[to the power] of"
I assumed the comment saying "parens: ()" was talking about US, but the replies seem to be interpreting the opposite.