One of the most common today is the 5 pointed star, but 4,6,7,8 and even more points have been used. Some cultures also represented stars more like they are seen in the sky, as dots, or small circles. The 5 pointed star might have originated from the way the Egyptians represented the star in hyroglypics.

Do stars have 5 or 6 points?

They cross at the center of the star, giving it six points. If the aperture is an octagon, you'll get eight points. These lines are called diffraction spikes, and now that light pollution means we're more likely to see a star in a photograph than in the night sky, they dominate our idea of a star.

Do stars really have 5 points?

But we all know that a real star doesn't actually have any points or spikes. ... Furthermore, all the stars that we can see (apart from our Sun) are so far away that they appear to us as perfect little dots. The answer to why we draw stars as pointy objects, is because our eyes actually see them as having points.