Definitions of confer:

• verb:   present

  Example: "The university conferred a degree on its most famous former student, who never graduated"

• verb:   have a conference in order to talk something over

  Example: "We conferred about a plan of action"

• adverb:   compare (used in texts to point the reader to another location in the text)
• name:  A surname (rare: 1 in 100000 families; popularity rank in the U.S.: #8753)