The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

asterisk
*

    "*" ASCII code 42.  Common names include: star;
   INTERCAL: splat; ITU-T: asterisk.  Rare: wild card;
   gear; dingle; mult; spider; aster; times; twinkle; glob;
   Nathan Hale.

   Commonly used as the multiplication operator and as the
   Kleene star.  Often doubled, as in "x**2", to mean "to the
   power".  In C and related languages, asterisk is used as the
   dereference operator, "*p" meaning "the thing pointed to by
   p".

   (2006-09-10)