We all know this technology, it is practically impossible to find a smartphone without Bluetooth, but do you know where its name comes from? Well, you have to travel back in time to the 10th century, to meet the Danish king Harald Blatand nicknamed “Bluetooth” (Blue Tooth).
When you invent something new, one of the most important aspects is to give it a name. This can be decided based on what it does, what it is composed of or who invented it, although this is not always the case, there are occasions when the names are chosen based on a legend.
It all started in 1996, when three of today’s leading technology companies, Intel, Ericsson and Nokia, came together to standardize this new short-range radio technology so that different products and industries could use it.
At the time of the meeting, almost everything was set, but there was something missing, the name. It was Intel’s Jim Kardach who suggested that for at least as long as the marketing team finds the perfect name, Bluetooth be used.
According to those present, Kardach proposed the name by saying “King Harald Bluetooth… was famous for uniting Scandinavia just as we intended to unite the PC and cellular industries with a short-range wireless link.” This king was nicknamed Bluetooth (blue tooth) because he had a dead tooth that had turned a bluish-gray color.
As we have already said, at first this name was only going to be temporary, but when the moment of truth arrived to choose the official name, a better name had not been found. RadioWire was thought of, although the most popular was PAN (Personal Area Network), however, they discovered that that term had already established itself as a common term on the Internet.
Following the release of this technology, the name was extremely successful and quickly established itself throughout the world as a synonym for short-range wireless technology. In this way, the name of Bluetooth was established as the official name, but this is not the only nod to the Danish king.
The letters H and B of the runic alphabet merged make the Bluetooth logo
If we look at the Bluetooth logo, and compare it with the runic alphabet, used in numerous Germanic languages from Scandinavia in the Viking Age, we can see that the symbol merges the letters H (?) and B (?) of that alphabet , after the initials of Harald Bjarkan, also known as Bluetooth.
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