Hacker News Reader

As a Norwegian speaking guy, I used to say "blåtann" instead of "bluetooth" as a joke when I was a teenager. Because I found the direct translation funny. Didn't know at the time that I was actually somewhat "correct".

View on HN

Swedish guy here, can confirm that it was often called "Blåtand" in various circumstances in Sweden at the time (20ish years ago). I have worked with Ericsson-employees who also called it "Blåtand" but nowadays it is less common and "Bluetooth" has taken over as the way to refer to it here.

Among older people I still hear Blåtand now and then. Some of them think they are funny, some knows why :-)

The story I heard some 20ish years ago was that the Blåtand name was so popular inside Ericsson that employees were actively encouraged to use the name Bluetooth and not Blåtand. At the time, "everyone" called it Blåtand, outside of Ericsson too.

I agree that people in Sweden just tend to call it Bluetooth nowadays.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com