Bizzare Facts

The wireless technology that connects your phone to your headphones has a strange and ancient royal pedigree. The name **Bluetooth** was conceived in **1997** by Jim Kardach of Intel as a temporary codename for the project, which was aimed at creating a unified wireless standard for devices like phones, computers, and headsets.

The name referenced **King Harald 'Bluetooth' Gormsson**, a 10th-century Viking king of Denmark who famously united various warring Scandinavian tribes. The metaphor was apt: just as King Harald united a fractured kingdom, the technology was designed to unite various fractured communication protocols into one single, unifying standard.

The logo itself is also a fusion of two runes from the Viking Younger Futhark: $\text{H}$ (ᚼ, Hagall) and $\text{B}$ (ᛒ, Bjarkan), representing the king's initials. Although the name was only meant to be a placeholder until a proper name could be developed, it stuck and became official, forever linking a high-tech wireless protocol to a medieval Danish monarch.