Who was Bluetooth named after?

Bluetooth technology was named after a 10th century Viking king, Harald “Blatand” Gormsson who ruled Denmark and Norway from 958 to 985. Gormsson was known for bringing people together through non-violent ways and excellent communication skills.

He had a nickname “Blatand” in Danish which translates to “Bluetooth” in English. It was reasoned that just as the king united Denmark and Norway under his rule, the wireless technology seamlessly united the PC and other cellular devices.

In 1996, three industry leaders, Intel, Ericsson, and Nokia, 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. Kardach was later quoted as 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.”

Bluetooth was only intended as a placeholder until marketing could come up with something really cool.

Later, when it came time to select a serious name, Bluetooth was to be replaced with either RadioWire or PAN (Personal Area Networking). PAN was the front runner, but an exhaustive search discovered it already had tens of thousands of hits throughout the internet.

A full trademark search on RadioWire couldn’t be completed in time for launch, making Bluetooth the only choice. The name caught on fast and before it could be changed, it spread throughout the industry, becoming synonymous with short-range wireless technology.

Credit : Bluetooth.com

Picture Credit : Google

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