Why Bluetooth Is Named After a 10th-Century Viking King

In Lund, in Sweden's Skåne region, a team of Ericsson engineers spent the 1990s developing a short-range radio standard intended to let very different devices communicate without cables. The technology was officially launched in 1999, and the placeholder name engineers had used during development, "Bluetooth," stuck.

The name comes from Harald Gormsson, the 10th-century king who briefly united Denmark and Norway under a single crown. Contemporary sources called him "Blåtand," or Bluetooth, a nickname whose precise origin is still debated. Just as Harald drew rival tribes into one kingdom, the new standard was meant to unite devices from rival manufacturers on a common network. The logo itself fuses the runes for H and B, Harald's initials.

A Viking-age runestone in Lund commemorates the city's medieval roots and now serves as a low-key shrine for the technology that took its name. Featured by Atlas Obscura on May 5, 2026, the stone has become an unlikely meeting point for both local residents and visiting engineers, a reminder of how often modern technology brands draw, sometimes literally, on the deep history of the places where they were born.