Bluetooth

Are you looking for a killer name for your invention or startup? Then, you must spend some time reading history books! Now let’s see how Jim Kardach, an Intel engineer came up with an ingenious name for a system he developed at the company.

In 1996, three industry leaders, Intel, Ericsson, and Nokia, met to plan the standardization of a short-range radio technology to support connectivity and collaboration between different products and industries. Jim Kardach was part of the team.

While he was working on this system, he would usually sit down with a book and chill. So the book he was reading at that time was a historical novel called The Longships by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson; the book was actually about the adventurous lives of the Vikings, and it’s set during the reign of King Harald Bluetooth. He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald introduced Christianity to Denmark and ruled as king of Denmark from c. 958 - c. 986.

Jim Kardach had this weird thought after reading the novel that he was just like King Harald who united the warring provinces of Denmark and Norway under a single king (himself).

Similarly, Jim was also trying to bring computer and telephone together which were considered two different entities in the tech world at that time. So, he felt funny and gave the project the title Bluetooth, but he wasn’t serious. Come on, blue teeth are gross! So the marketing team surely wanted to give it a better name.

The name that was finally chosen for the product before its launch was Pan. So did they take it from Peter Pan? No! It was just a bland “Pan” that was an abbreviation for Personal Area Network. Then, someone woke up and realized Pan was already the trademark of another company. So the marketing team panicked since it was crunch time! There was no option left except the one proposed by Kardach. Today, we all know this product as Bluetooth technology.

Now, something about Bluetooth’s connection with the real blue teeth. The king’s name was Harald Gormsson and he was nicknamed “Blatand” (Bluetooth) in Old Norse because the King actually had a dead tooth that looked blue.

Now you know how to find a cool name for your product. What about Alfonso ‘The Slobberer’ King Of Leon or Ragnarr ‘Hairypants’ Chief of The Vikings? - Ew!

- SG

The ‘initial’ Bluetooth Logo

The Bluetooth logo is a bind rune merging the Younger Futhark runes (Hagall) ( ) and (Bjarkan) ( ), Harald’s initials. The Younger Futhark became known in Europe as the “alphabet of the Norsemen”, and was studied in the interest of trade and diplomatic contacts.