Blue tooth? Although it is used daily by millions of people around the world, the true meaning of the name Bluetooth was not so well known.
If you’ve ever woken up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, trying to figure out what this mysterious name means, don’t worry. It has a surprisingly complete explanation full of history.
It all started when Bluetooth was invented in the 1990s by the creators of Intel, Ericsson, and Nokia. Initially, they gave this name temporarily, until the marketing team could come up with something better.
In the end, it seems they liked the name so much that they decided to keep it, and the innovative technology, still widely used today, kept the official name Bluetooth. But what does Bluetooth mean?
According to its official website, the technology that helped eliminate the use of wires in many peripherals, like mice and headphones, was named Bluetooth in honor of King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson.
“In 1996, three industry leaders met to plan the standardization of this short-range radio technology to support connectivity and collaboration between different products and industries. During this meeting, Jim Kardach from Intel suggested Bluetooth as a temporary code name.”
“The name dates back over a thousand years to King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ Gormsson, who was known for two things: uniting Denmark and Norway in 958. [And] his dead tooth, which was dark blue/gray, and which earned him the nickname Bluetooth,” the text continues.
“King Harald Bluetooth… was famous for uniting Scandinavia, just as we intended to unite the PC and mobile industries with a short-range wireless link.”
Even more interesting is the fact that the Bluetooth symbol is a combination of two runes, Hagall (ᚼ) and Bjarkan (ᛒ), which were Harald’s initials.
“And all this time, I just thought it was a futuristic font for a ‘B’,” wrote a Reddit user. “I love that it’s named after a guy. It’s so stupid and bad sci-fi that it’s almost charming,” said another internet user.
Photo and video: Freepik. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
