I'm not Bill, but this is a case where two different things have the same name.
As far as "inverted V-shaped things" go you'll hear chevron, caret, and circumflex. But the caret in caret browsing refers to the system cursor, usually in the form of a vertical bar, that shows the insert point of the next character within text. My guess is that the two became called the same thing due to the fact that in "the old days" the caret (inverted V) was used as an editing mark on manuscripts to show were something needed to be inserted that had been omitted. Brian
