How is it like saying "and zee"? The article pretty clearly outlines the logic here, and this would not be like that. If anything, it'd be "zee per se zee".
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.
Yes, specificially this article: http://haggardhawksblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/ampersand.html