what does the "Local Area Connection* 12" mean?

using the commands below(win 8.1 professional):

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode = allow ssid=myWifiName key=myWifiPwd

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

In Windows 7, the commands will generate "Wireless Network Connection 2"(I think the reason is that there already exists a connection called WLAN. So it starts from number 2).

In Windows 8.1, the commands will generate "Local Area Connection* 12"(I could not figure out the reason why the number is 12 and what the asterisk means???).

I could not stop myself from thinking why the number starts from 12 and what the asterisk means? I could not get useful info from google. So I registered an account. Could you help me please ? thanks.