[boffinism]

You're missing that "& per se &" would still have been called that even if it wasn't the last item in the list. If the order was "...y, & and z" you'd pronounce it "why and per se and and zed".

[kgwgk]

Is there any reason to believe so?

Maybe it’s you who is missing what’s going on.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-origin-of-the-ampersand

& was named ampersand in the context of rattling off the letters of the alphabet in English: “double-you ex wye izzard/zed, and”.

“… And what?”

“And, on its own, and” (and, per se, and).

With “and” named in English, because this was an English rattling off of the alphabet.

[boffinism]

> Is there any reason to believe so?

Yes, specificially this article: http://haggardhawksblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/ampersand.html

[kgwgk]

I agree with palotasb about that article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35611618