I have a habit of wearing headphones in the office, sometimes listening to instrumental background music to fend off surrounding noise, and other times just to enjoy a moment of electronic silence with my AirPods’ noise cancellation.
Many headphones connect via Bluetooth, and I often wonder why this technology is called Bluetooth instead of Blueear, as it has nothing to do with teeth.
After reading today’s article, you might have a different perspective when using Bluetooth headphones.
Bluetooth, as a short-range (up to 10 meters) wireless data transmission technology, was invented in 1994 by the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson (Telefonaktiebolaget L. M. Ericsson). In 1999, several major companies including Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia, and Toshiba jointly established the Special Interest Group (SIG), aiming to develop a unified Bluetooth technology standard.
The group was later renamed the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), headquartered in Washington State, USA.
Why Was the Strange Name Bluetooth Chosen?
In 1997, Intel partner Jim Kardach, one of the co-founders of SIG, suggested naming this future technology Bluetooth, inspired by the legendary Danish and Norwegian King Harald Blåtand Gormsen.
If you travel to Denmark today, you will see many statues and descriptions of this king, commemorating his achievements. He introduced Christianity to the Scandinavian Peninsula, making Denmark the most religious country among the five Nordic countries; he unified the currency across Denmark, undertook major construction projects, built roads and bridges, and unified the divided regions of Denmark. He can be roughly compared to China’s Qin Shi Huang.
The king’s Danish name, Harald Blåtand Gormsen, if written in Old Norse, would be ᚼᛅᚱᛅᛚᛏᚱ ᛬ ᚴᚢᚾᚢᚴᛦ.
The initials HB of Harald Blåtand correspond to ᚼ and ᛒ, which is how the Bluetooth logo came to be. The king’s nickname Blåtand is also his middle name, which in Latin letters is Bluetooth (blå = blue, tand = tooth).
Given that this king unified various regions of Denmark, SIG’s goal was also to unify the diverse short-range transmission technology standards of the time, so Jim Kardach proposed this name for the new technology they were exploring.
Thus, the name Bluetooth and its well-known logo were born.
The Bluetooth headphones and wireless transfer functions we use every day actually come from the name of an extraordinary king. Isn’t that impressive?
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Thank you for reading 🙂