In C it's common to use void * the way you use a variant in LabVIEW. It's a generic pointer. The const keyword here indicates that the object pointed to is read-only, but that doesn't mean that it points at void. It can be cast to a pointer to a constant of some other type.
When a parameter is passed to the function, it is called an argument. So, from the example above: name is a parameter, while Liam, Jenny and Anja are arguments.
