[SIGCIS-Members] Meaning of "Bluetooth"?

[Pierre Mounier-Kuhn]

Thanks a lot, Marc! I will follow these links. 
The reason for my question is journalistic: Someone from France-Culture wants an interview with me over this fundamental question… 
I thought that Loki, the Nordic gods' messager-trickster, would have made also a relevant saint-patron for a communication device, but Nils Rydbeck choose Bluetooth , so be it. 
Best, 
Pierre 


De: "Marc Weber" <marc at webhistory.org> 
À: "Pierre Mounier-Kuhn" <mounier at msh-paris.fr> 
Cc: "members" <members at sigcis.org> 
Envoyé: Jeudi 22 Avril 2021 18:55:07 
Objet: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Meaning of "Bluetooth"? 

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 [ https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mobile-computing/18/398 | this page ] 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 [ https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mobile-computing/18/341/2322 | interview clip ] 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 [ https://www.computerhistory.org/makesoftware/exhibit/texting/ | 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, [ https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mobile-computing/18 | Mobile Computing ] gallery. 

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




On Apr 22, 2021, at 09:11, Pierre Mounier-Kuhn < [ mailto:mounier at msh-paris.fr | 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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