A means used by some alternate historians, notably Jared, to refer to a person or item that has the same name as a counterpart in OTL, but is significantly different.

For example, the USA in Decades of Darkness is a slave-holding imperialist state very different from the OTL USA, but it is still known by the name United States of America…so, to avoid confusion, using the asterisk method would be to call it the *USA, and its inhabitants *Americans.

Another common use is for alternate monarchs: for example, “WI Elizabeth I had been born a boy?” Given the name Edward, he would become Edward VI of England. To avoid confusion with the different Edward VI of OTL, the timeline writer might say *Edward VI.

Other writers have used it for footnoting.