The Viking King Behind Your Bluetooth: A Millennia-Old Tech Tale
Discover the surprising history behind the name Bluetooth, tracing back to a 10th-century Viking king who united Scandinavia and inspired a global tech giant.
If you have ever wirelessly connected your smartphone to headphones or a laptop, you are undoubtedly familiar with the name Bluetooth. But while the technology itself is thoroughly modern, the story behind its quirky moniker takes us more than a thousand years back to a Viking king whose legacy is still evident in Jelling, a small Danish town located about 250 kilometers west of Copenhagen. According to a BBC report, the ancient runestones at the site reveal how the king's unusual nickname became one of the most widespread technologies in the world.
The king in question is Harald Gormsson, who ruled Denmark in the 10th century. His nickname was "Bluetooth" (Blátǫnn in Old Norse), a moniker first recorded about 150 years after his death, which is generally believed to refer to a dead, decayed, or "blue" tooth in his mouth. One of Harald's most significant achievements was the conversion of Denmark to Christianity, a process estimated to have taken place around 965 AD. The larger of the two runestones in Jelling, commissioned by Harald, proclaims that he "won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians."
The Birthplace of Denmark
Until that era, much of northern Europe was divided into small territories ruled by local chieftains. Christianity provided Harald with a means to consolidate his rule, strengthen Denmark's ties with Christian Europe, and assist in uniting the burgeoning nation. The king's story is etched into the landscape of Jelling, where his father, Gorm, erected the smaller and older runeston in memory of his wife Thyra. This stone is considered the "birth certificate of Denmark," as it contains the first written use of the country's name, and the entire area is now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
How did the king's name leap across more than a millennium of history to become a technological brand? In the late 1990s, engineers from tech giants such as Toshiba, IBM, Nokia, Intel, and Ericsson were developing a new technology designed to connect devices from different brands. Jim Kardach, an American engineer at Intel, was collaborating with Swedish engineers and thus was introduced to Viking history. Fascinated by the king who united Denmark and Norway, he proposed "Bluetooth" as a temporary codename, thinking the new technology would unite various devices in the same way the king united Scandinavia.
From Codenames to Global Brand
According to the BBC, corporate public relations teams were horrified by the name. They feared the negative association with poor dental hygiene and wanted to use more boring, technical names. Fortunately, the codename leaked to the media before the official press release, and the rest is history. Even the technology's famous logo is actually a combination of the runic letters H and B (the initials of Harald Bluetooth) in ancient Norse script.
"Harald loved to show off, so he would likely be thrilled to know that billions of people around the world pronounce his name every day." — Adam Bak, local museum curator
In 2023, marking the 25th anniversary of the technology's invention, its founders traveled to Jelling to playfully "apologize" for using Harald's name without permission. The local museum accepted the apology and granted them permission to continue using the name for the next 1,000 years. Adam Bak, the local museum curator, summed it up nicely by noting that Harald loved to boast, and would undoubtedly be delighted that billions worldwide speak his name daily.
