One field that can be a reference field for multiple tables

You cannot (and should never) give the same Field Name to a field in the same table twice.  This causes Users no-end of confusion when building reports. 

That is not to say that on a Form Layout, you cannot change the Label Text of a field to match another, when a User is viewing an Approval from Device 1 versus an Approval from Device 2.  However, your Related Reference fields should indicate the source-table, even if they have similar names (Device Name - Table X and Device Name - Table Y) for example.

By default if you add a field with a name already in the table, Quick Base will append the next sequence number to it (2, 3 etc) because no field should be duplicated.  There are some situations where a duplication has been "allowed" but as an Admin or a User you should never want the same field name to represent two different data sources.

If you need to have the same field be the reference field to lookup from another table, you can make a mirror field.

ie a formula text field with the formula of

[Device Name]