H + B = Bluetooth icon

A brief history of the Bluetooth name and icon

Michael McWatters
1 min readFeb 21, 2017

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According to the firm behind Bluetooth:

“Bluetooth technology was named after a Danish king, King Harald Blatand, who had a penchant for snacking on blueberries and was known for uniting warring factions in what is now Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Uniting devices from different manufacturers and with different purposes, like computers from Apple and mice from Microsoft, is what Bluetooth technology is all about — all at a low cost, with low power consumption and a secure connection every time.”

As for the icon, it’s a combination of the Danish Runes for H and B (for Harald Balatand).

I learned this several years ago in a short article by Sam Biddle in Gizmodo.

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