In programming there is a term "reference" which means that the first object refers to the second object. How can I name the second object in one word?
At first, I remembered about forms like "employer" - "employee", but "referer" - "referee" doesn't work, since the referee means something very different.
If your programming variable 'a' is a reference to an object 'B', then 'B' can be called the referent (a term borrowed from the field of linguistics).
referent noun The thing in the world that a word or phrase denotes or stands for. ‘‘the Morning Star’ and ‘the Evening Star’ have the same referent (the planet Venus)’ - ODO
Referee (/rɛˈfəriː/), as the word for a sports official, and referee (/rɛfəˈriː/), as the word for something that has been referred, are pronounced differently. The former has stress on the first e while the latter has stress on the second e. So there is a distinction and you could absolutely use the word to describe the second object.
That said, reference is actually a great word itself and is widely used in most programming languages involving objects.
Object b is a reference of object a.
Another word that might be acceptable here is child if you're referring to classical inheritance with objects.
