People on social media have been left baffled after discovering the real meaning behind the famous Bluetooth logo.
Most of us probably use the feature on our phones most days as a way to connect music to speakers or link up wireless devices as a way to communicate easier.
And although it was only invented during the 1990s, the name Bluetooth and its instantly recognisable symbol was inspired by events that happened way back in the 10th century.
The Twitter account @theculturaltutor recently posted a helpful explainer thread on the history of Bluetooth and how its logo was created, with many people admitting that they'd never known its meaning.
It turns out that during the emergence of Bluetooth in 1996, the three companies Intel, Eriksson and Nokia met to discuss how it would work across different devices.
And an engineer from Intel called Jim Kardach, who had recently been reading up on 10th century Vikings, suggested "Bluetooth" as a placeholder name until something better was thought up.
This was inspired by King Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson of Denmark, who ruled between 958 and 986, and was "famous for uniting Scandinavia just as we intended to unite the PC and cellular industries with a short-range wireless link."
His nickname is thought to be because of a single rotten tooth that he had, which was "dark blue or black".
In terms of the famous logo, the symbol originates from the Viking runes used at the time of the king's reign. It combines the runes for his initials - ᚼ (H) and ᛒ (B) - into something like a stylised signature.
When the time came for Bluetooth to initially launch, there were two other names in the running - PAN (Personal Area Networking) and RadioWire.
However, PAN was already a popular search term online, and the developers were unable to get the trademark for RadioWire in time for its launch.
So the placeholder name ended up sticking - and a thousand-year-old Danish king ended up being the name of the revolutionary technology.
In the thread's comments, people were blown away at Bluetooth's historical inspiration, with many saying they were clueless about how it came about.
"Wow! Didn't know that...." someone said.
Another added: "Love your posts. I learned something today!!"
A third person commented: "man I love this account so much. this was such a great read!! powerful stuff if you really pay attention. it goes so so deep. the world we live in today and how it mirrors our entire civilization's past is more interwoven than people acknowledge."
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