[SIGCIS-Members] Meaning of "Bluetooth"?

[Marc Weber]

Dear Pierre,

Greetings! Yes. When I interviewed one of the main creators Nils Rydbeck of Ericsson for the mobile gallery in our Revolution exhibition (scroll down on this page <https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mobile-computing/18/398> for Bluetooth headset entry), he said they chose it because Harold Bluetooth united warring tribes, and Bluetooth the standard was meant to unite a little galaxy of peripherals, at the time mostly headsets to go with phones.  Of course they also thought the name was fun. 

Here’s an interview clip <https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mobile-computing/18/341/2322> with Nils on an early touchscreen phone, he worked with Jan Uddenfeldt at Ericsson who was a major GSM pioneer, there’s also a bit of GSM history in our texting <https://www.computerhistory.org/makesoftware/exhibit/texting/> gallery. I can try to dig up the full interview with Nils if you like, I also did an oral history with Jan. 

Best, 

Marc

Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing, Mobile Computing <https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mobile-computing/18> gallery. 

Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/>  |   marc at webhistory.org  |   +1 415 282 6868
Curatorial Director, Internet History Program
Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
computerhistory.org/nethistory  |  Co-founder, Web History Center and Project

> On Apr 22, 2021, at 09:11, Pierre Mounier-Kuhn <mounier at msh-paris.fr> wrote:
> 
> Dear Friends & Colleagues,
> An anecdotical query : does someone know why the inventors of Bluetooth choose this name? I know about the Viking chief Harald Blåtand, but why had the two developers from Intel and Ericsson in mind when they chose that name and the two runic initials?
> Thanks if someone can give me some clues about this mystery!
> Best,
> Pierre Mounier-Kuhn 
> 
> CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne 
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