Why does Bluetooth have such a strange name?
The Real Answer
Bluetooth has a strange name because it was originally a temporary code name borrowed from a medieval king. According to the Bluetooth SIG's official history, Intel engineer Jim Kardach suggested Bluetooth in 1996, referring to King Harald Bluetooth Gormsson.
The analogy was that Harald was remembered for uniting parts of Scandinavia, while the new short-range radio standard was meant to unite the PC and cellular industries through a common wireless link. Bluetooth was supposed to be replaced later by a more conventional product name.
That replacement never happened. Proposed alternatives such as PAN and RadioWire ran into practical naming problems, the temporary name had already spread, and Bluetooth stuck. Even the Bluetooth logo carries the history: it combines runic forms representing Harald's initials, H and B.
Bluetooth was named after a king associated with unification. You learn this while sitting in a parked car deleting and re-pairing the same device three times. By the fourth attempt, you’re holding the phone six inches from the dashboard because apparently wireless technology now needs supervision.
Why People Ask This
People ask because Bluetooth sounds nothing like a normal technology name. It is not obviously an acronym, technical specification, or description of what the connection does. The oddness is real: the name began as a historical code name and survived long enough to become permanent.