I don't know the real answer, but I always thought that the star indicates something pointing to, hence pointer. For &, I have an even sillier explanation, ANDd

I don't know the real answer, but I always thought that the star indicates something pointing to, hence pointer. For &, I have an even sillier explanation, ANDdress. For references, & is overloaded to distinguish those who claim to know C++ by simply knowing C, since they are the same(!)