What does today’s Bluetooth standard actually have to do with the Vikings? And how did the famous logo come about? An excursion into (technical) history.
The history of Bluetooth begins in the 10th century AD. We are in Scandinavia, more precisely in Denmark. Christianization is in full swing and is causing an uproar among the peoples. Denmark and Norway are at war over this. At that time, it is the year 958, King Harald Gormsson reigns in Denmark. He wants to end the war between the two countries. A mammoth task at the time.
But King Harald Gormsson demonstrated enormous negotiating skills and actually managed to pacify parts of Denmark and Norway in 958 and bring them under his governmental authority.
This medieval story was remembered in 1996 by representatives of the then three leading mobile phone companies Ericsson, Intel and Nokia. At that time, there were various efforts in the industry to connect devices with each other over short distances using radio technology. An industry standard should be developed for this.
Codename: Bluetooth
The meetings were, of course, top secret. The competitors in the mobile sector should not hear anything about the talks. After all, the three companies sensed good business if a technical breakthrough in terms of radio transmission should succeed.
A representative from Intel, Jim Kardach, is said to have suggested a code name for the joint project at the time. This read: Bluetooth. At this early stage, however, this name only served as a placeholder.
How Jim Kardach came up with the name? When asked about this, the Intel man related: “The Danish King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ went down in history for having united Scandinavia. Likewise, we intend to unite the PC and wireless industries with a short-range wireless connection.”
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A royal placeholder makes history
To understand the name “Bluetooth” a little better, we have to go back to the year 958, to the time when King Harald reigned in Denmark. Because the regent actually bore the nickname “Bluetooth” – in English: Bluetooth. To this day, however, historians still disagree on where this nickname came from.
This theory sounds the most likely: The front row of teeth of King Harald of Denmark is said to have “decorated” some dead teeth. Dental hygiene certainly hardly played a role in the Middle Ages. As such, it wasn’t uncommon for people to show off their dark blue, dead teeth, as King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson of Denmark presumably did.
A little over 1000 years later, three companies chose the code name “Bluetooth” with a royal past as a placeholder for a new industry standard in the field of wireless data transmission.
As the project took on more concrete forms, names such as RadioWire or Personal Area Networking (PAN) circulated. PAN was long considered a favorite. However, a name search revealed that there were already too many entries for these three letters. However, the new industry standard should have an unmistakable name.
This is how the royal placeholder became a brand name that is known all over the world. And Bluetooth technology still plays an important role today when it comes to the uncomplicated transfer of data between different devices.
Bluetooth – even the logo is medieval
A good brand story not only defines a distinctive name, but also continues the story behind the story with the brand logo.
The Bluetooth sign combines two Germanic runes, namely “Hagall” – ᚼ – and “Bjarkan” – ᛒ – the initials of King Harald “Blauzahn/Bluetooth” of Denmark. The resulting logo is now known all over the world.