C++ reference is implemented as a pointer internally.

Internally, a reference is generally implemented as pointer and the object syntax transformed into the indirection required of a pointer. [ P23, Inside the C++ object model]

But, logically, we can still take a reference as a new name to a block of memory. That means a variable can has more than one names.  Through the view of the implementation, there is only one real name and the others are all indirected pointer.