Why Is Bluetooth Named After a Viking King?

Bluetooth sounds like a description of wireless technology, but the name belongs to a Scandinavian king who lived about a thousand years before smartphones.

During the 1990s, engineers from Intel, Ericsson, Nokia, and other companies were trying to create a common short range radio standard. Different manufacturers had competing systems, and their devices could not easily communicate. While the industry worked toward cooperation, Intel engineer Jim Kardach suggested “Bluetooth” as a temporary project name.

Kardach had been reading about Harald Bluetooth, a tenth century king of Denmark. Harald was remembered for bringing territories and people under his rule, and later tradition associated him with uniting Denmark and Norway. Kardach saw a useful comparison. The new technology was intended to unite computers, mobile phones, and accessories that otherwise spoke incompatible technical languages.

Other formal names were considered, including RadioWire and Personal Area Networking. Problems with trademarks and internet searches weakened those alternatives. The temporary Viking name survived and became permanent.

The logo carries the historical reference even further. It combines two runic characters corresponding to H and B, Harald Bluetooth’s initials, into a single symbol. Millions of people now see a miniature royal monogram whenever they connect headphones or a keyboard.

Bluetooth is therefore not named for the color of an indicator light or a part inside a radio. Both its name and symbol commemorate a medieval king chosen as a metaphor for getting separate groups to communicate.