The first app I built that used bluetooth extensively was in 2013 for Android. Adoption across the industry was still slow and many smart phones still did not support it.
Strangely, I never researched such a strange name for a technology; "Bluetooth". Smartphones are phones that we consider smarter than simple phones. A computer is a device that computes numbers.
But bluetooth?
What does it mean?
Most of us associate Bluetooth with wireless headphones, phone pairing, or file sharing. But behind this everyday technology lies a surprising backstory rooted in Scandinavian history.
Bluetooth is named after Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, a king who ruled Denmark and parts of Norway in the 10th century. King Harald was known for two things: uniting Danish tribes into a single kingdom, and having a conspicuous dead tooth that looked blue (or dark) in color, earning him the nickname "Bluetooth".
When engineers from Intel, Ericsson, and Nokia were developing a short-range wireless communication standard in the 1990s, they needed a code name for the project. Jim Kardach, an Intel engineer and history buff, suggested "Bluetooth" after reading a book. He drew a parallel between King Harald's unification of tribes and their own goal of uniting various communication protocols under one universal standard.
From Codename to Global Brand
"Bluetooth" was initially just a placeholder name while the developers worked on the technology. However, when it came time to choose a permanent name, nothing else resonated as well. The name had already caught on internally, and the symbolism stuck just as Harald had unified Scandinavia, Bluetooth would unite devices.
The name became official and even the logo carries the historical reference. The Bluetooth symbol combines two letters from the Scandinavian alphabet—Hagall (ᚼ) and Bjarkan (ᛒ) which stand for H and B, Harald Bluetooth's initials.
