 <p>I use to think about a reference as an alias for another object. If you apply this to people, the alias is a nickname.</p> <p>For example, if you have:</p> <pre><code>Person Robert; Person&amp; Bob = Robert; </code></pre> <p>you only have one person, but you sometimes call him Robert and sometimes call him Bob. But he is still the same person. </p> <p>Trying to involve Bob's address into this just makes it harder. I find it easier to just consider references at the abstract level - two names for the same thing.</p>