Bluetooth is named after a medieval king who may have had a blue tooth

Bluetooth was never supposed to be called Bluetooth . Back in 1996 , a consortium of company — Intel , Ericsson , Nokia , and later IBM — decide to create a single wireless standard . Each ship’s company had been get their own short - ambit radio engineering , but all the public figure they came up with sucked . Then , along come an obscure Scandanavian king from the Middle Ages .

King Harald Gormsson is famous for ruling Denmark and then Norway between about 940 and about 986 , at last merge all of Scandinavia . He was also the one who converted the Danes to Christianity . Like many chivalric rulers , he also had a nickname : blátǫnn in Old Norse or Blåtand in Danish . It mean Bluetooth . The precise origin of the cognomen is up for argument , but many scholars believe that King Harald became known as Bluetooth because he had a conspicuous all in tooth that literally look gloomy . Makes sense .

What does all this have to do with wireless technology measure of the mid-90 ’s ? Everything , actually . As the above three caller struggled to develop their new standard , Intel engineer Jim Kardachwent out drinkingwith Ericsson technologist Sven Mattisson . In the summer of 1997 , as their companies fight to finalize their wireless standard , the two gentleman went out drinking in Toronto after losing a competitor for a specific radio system of rules . Kardach had been work on a program called Business - RF at Intel , while Mattisson had developed similar technology predict MC Links for Ericsson . Nokia had their own Low Power RF program , but apparently , their engineer did n’t get to go to crapulence .

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During their taphouse crawl , Kardach and Mattisson started talking about history . Mattisson had just read a book called The Longships by Frans G. Bengtsson that catalogue the locomotion of Danish warriors under the sovereignty of King Harald “ Bluetooth ” Gormsson . ( He ’s often simply referred to as Harard Bluetooth . ) Kardach went home and read The Vikings by Gwyn Jones , which he ’d actually ordered before the trip . In it , the history - loving engine driver learned more about Bluetooth . “ Harald had unify Denmark and Christianized the Danes ! ” Kardachwrote in a newspaper column a decennary later . “ It hap to me that this would make a secure codename for the program . ”

Kardach even create a PowerPoint presentation to pitch the idea to others in the schematic merchandising group . As you’re able to see to the left , it was a small turn goofy . The chemical group debated a number of name calling , include “ Flirt ” as a breath that devices get close without poignant , but could n’t accord upon anything . Bluetooth became the prescribed codename , but it was only supposed to be a placeholder . When it came time to nail down the name , all of the companies involve in the project agree to use IBM ’s idea : PAN ( personal area networking ) .

But then , of all things , the name PAN presented an SEO trouble . Search engines turn up G of results for the Word of God , potentially leading to hallmark issues down the line . “ It was decided then that we would go ahead and set up the SIG with the codename ‘ Bluetooth ’ , ” Kardach explained , “ but would then change the name when the merchandising group came - up with the official name . ” Bluetooth was an instant collision , though , and the name was never changed .

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When it finally came time to create a logotype , the squad turn back to Bluetooth ’s Nordic bloodline . The now iconic Bluetooth logo is actually a combination — formally known as a bind rune — of King Bluetooth ’s initials inScandinavian runic letter : ᚼ and ᛒ. When you link the two to make a bind rune and flatten it on a aristocratical background , you get the familiar Bluetooth logo . The iconic image can be seen on millions of gimmick around the human beings . All because of a good king and his bad tooth .

Image via Wikipedia / Bluetooth