Viking

Greenland is mostly ice, yet its name means 'green land.' Around 982 the Viking Erik the Red, exiled from Iceland for murder, founded a colony and chose an appealing name to lure settlers. The fjords he settled did green in summer. Around 985, 25 ships set out; 14 arrived.

Bluetooth is named after Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, the 10th-century Viking king who united Denmark and Norway—as the tech would unite PCs and phones. Its logo merges his initials in runes ᚼ and ᛒ. A placeholder name, it stuck. The nickname likely came from a dead, bluish tooth.

The image of Vikings in horned helmets is a myth—no excavated Viking helmet has horns. It spread from the 1876 premiere of Richard Wagner's opera the Ring cycle, when designer Carl Emil Doepler added horns to the male helmets.