Have you ever wondered how Bluetooth got its name? I mean, does it have anything to do with a.. blue tooth? Well, apparently it does!
Here’s the story.
Back in 1996, companies such as Intel, Ericsson, Nokia, and later IBM, decided to create a single wireless standard. Each company had been developing their own short-range radio technologies and each had its own codename. In the summer of 1997, Intel engineer Jim Kardach went out drinking with Ericsson engineer Sven Mattisson and started talking about some historical events. You see, at that time, Mattisson had just read a book called “The Longships” by Frans G. Bengtsson that was about the travels of Danish warriors under the reign of King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson. (the article continues after the ad)
During those times (between 940 and 981) the Viking king of Denmark was King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson. King Harald got the nickname “Bluetooth” because he had a conspicuous dead tooth that… looked blue. But, besides his blue tooth, what was King Harald famous for, was for uniting parts of Denmark and Norway into one nation and converting the Danes to Christianity.
The fact that King Bluetooth ultimately united a large part of Scandinavia gave the two technicians the idea that the new technology should be called bluetooth. After all, the purpose of the technology was to unite the the wireless communication field.
When they got back to work they created a powerpoint presentation to convince others in the marketing department to accept the name:
Since then and up until the day the technology was launched, a number of names have been debated such as “Flirt” (because devices get close without touching), PAN (personal area networking) and more. The problem was that each and every idea had its own issues. Flirt just didn’t sound right and PAN presented some serious SEO problems as search engines were turning up thousands of results. That’s why, when it finally came to give the technology a name, the name Bluetooth had finally prevailed as no better alternative had been found.
And all that because of a bad teeth and a good King.
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: “Break The Ice”, “Bite The Bullet” And 3 More Expressions With Crazy Origins
Photos: Gear Live / infoalert.ro
Photoshop: I’m A Useless Info Junkie
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