Why is Wi-Fi called Wi-Fi when it doesnt actually stand for anything

r/

I recently found out the Wi-fi doesnt stand for wireless fidelity and that was just a trademarked term so why did we call it wi-fi.

I genuinely don’t know the answer

Comments

  1. rewardiflost Avatar

    Jell-O, Xerox, Aspirin – also didn’t stand for anything.

    Companies (or tech alliances) hire companies like Interbrand to come up with catchy product names.

    >>The name Wi-Fi, commercially used at least as early as August 1999,[30] was coined by the brand-consulting firm Interbrand. The Wi-Fi Alliance had hired Interbrand to create a name that was “a little catchier than ‘IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence’.”[31][32] According to Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance, the term Wi-Fi was chosen from a list of ten names that Interbrand proposed.[31] Interbrand also created the Wi-Fi logo. The yin-yang Wi-Fi logo indicates the certification of a product for interoperability.[33] The name is often written as WiFi, Wifi, or wifi, but these are not approved by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

  2. NDaveT Avatar

    It’s a play on “hi-fi”. It’s for marketing and advertising, not precision.

  3. SonOfWestminster Avatar

    It’s a pun on Hi-Fi, which is short for High Fidelity, an audiophile term for reproduced sound that sounds reasonably close to the original.

    Most people are probably unfamiliar with the term Hi-Fi since it hasn’t been used much in marketing since the early 90s, so it’s understandable that Wi-Fi seems a little disconnected (pun intended) in an etymological sense.

    The “fi” doesn’t stand for fidelity because the idea was to have a name that was instantly catchy and familiar, not necessarily be meaningful.

  4. doubleudeaffie Avatar

    The origin of Bluetooth, and more specifically, its sigil, is far more interesting.

  5. Kriskao Avatar

    Because “IEEE standard 802.11” doesn’t fit nicely on stickers

  6. fatloui Avatar

    I got this question wrong at trivia once because the quiz master was convinced it stood for “wireless fidelity”.

  7. OutlandishnessOk2398 Avatar

    One of its names is WLAN, which stands for wireless local area network

  8. KennstduIngo Avatar

    It is getting to be even more meaningless now that there seems be an increasing trend of people just referring to the Internet service to their home as “Wi-Fi”.

  9. princess_Hitler Avatar

    Wireless – Fireless

  10. Farfignugen42 Avatar

    Marketing. It is easy to say, reminds people of hi-fi, and sounds unique.

  11. Mr_Cat101 Avatar

    Wireless fireless

  12. Brigwall66 Avatar

    I always assumed it stood for “Wireless Fidelity”, not sure why(fi)

  13. ThirdSunRising Avatar

    People just named shit whatever they wanted.

    Today nobody remembers what a hi-fi even was. It was like hi-def but for analog audio. Early AM radios were made for talk, and sounded like ass when music played. So a hi-fi was just a radio, record player or stereo system that produced actual decent musical sound. Today, they all do. (Ok. Almost all.) Just like all modern TVs are HD. The name HiFi was already obsolete long before WiFi came out, but a lot of 90s grunge bands started marketing LoFi – intentionally dirty sound.

    So in the early 2000s when they needed a name for this nifty new wireless shit, apple chose to call it AirPort but everyone else basically settled on WiFi for, um, no reason at all. Because it was a play on words back then 🤷‍♂️

  14. BeanBagLlama Avatar

    Played on Hi-Fi, I believe is the prevailing thought.

    Kind of like the knowledge that SOS doesn’t actually stand for “Save our Souls” or “Save our Ship”, which are the common beliefs.

    …—… was just an easy, fast, identifiable string of beeps and boops!

  15. LNGBandit77 Avatar

    The name “Wi-Fi” is a brand name, not an acronym for “wireless fidelity”. It was created by Interbrand, a branding agency, to provide a catchy and memorable name for the emerging wireless networking technology, IEEE 802.11b. While the Wi-Fi Alliance did initially use a tagline “The Standard for Wireless Fidelity”, this was later dropped as it was seen as a confusing and unnecessary addition

  16. harlekintiger Avatar

    In Germany we call it WLAN

  17. JellicoAlpha_3_1 Avatar

    Interbrand was hired by the Wi-Fi Alliance (then known as the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance) to create a catchy and memorable name for the new wireless networking technology. The name “Wi-Fi” was inspired by the existing term “Hi-Fi” (High Fidelity) from the audio industry, suggesting a high-quality experience. Interbrand also created the Wi-Fi logo.

    From Google

  18. senapnisse Avatar

    Free Wife, Hi!

  19. tim_jam Avatar

    I thought it was Wience Fiction

  20. ShatteringLast Avatar

    Wi(reless) Fi(nternet) 😀

  21. HydrophGlass Avatar

    it’s called wifi because it’s named after the guy who created the first wifi router – william fastinternetski

  22. AnnoingGuy Avatar

    It’s as though there’s an entire Wikipedia article about this, which goes into way more detail than you want.

  23. NoTime4YourBullshit Avatar

    Wi-Fi is a play on Hi-Fi, which was a term that was thrown around all the time in the 90s and early 2000s to describe really nice component stereo systems. That term has mostly died out, but Wi-Fi remains.

  24. FieserMoep Avatar

    That’s why we call it WLAN in Germany.

  25. DoubleFisted27 Avatar

    Everyone asking Why Wi-Fi, no one asks How Wi-Fi … Why not?

  26. oboshoe Avatar

    It’s a marketing term trademarked by Wifi Alliance which is a non-profit trade association made up by members Apple, Intel, Cisco, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Samsung, Microsoft and a few more.

    They figured that “WIFI” was much easier to sell and market than “IEEE 802.11b” (and it’s successors)

  27. ShoddyJuggernaut975 Avatar

    They “say” it doesn’t stand for anything, but I don’t believe it. I believe it stands for “WIreless Fucking Internet!” and they’re just afraid to admit they swear.

  28. VenmoPaypalCashapp Avatar

    So many confidently incorrect answers in here. WiFi does NOT stand for fidelity. “The term was proposed by a marketing firm in part because of the term’s resonance with hi-fi. (Wi-Fi is, however, not an abbreviation for “wireless fidelity.”)”

    Literally a nonsense word made up by marketing.

  29. Ok_Entry1818 Avatar

    wireless fidelity

  30. romulusnr Avatar

    It was a spoof of the term “hi-fi” which means high fidelity which referred to 1. 1950s/60s era home stereo systems 2. certain higher-resolution audio storage formats used in broadcasting industry.

  31. Ambitious_Toe_4357 Avatar

    First came the Wi-Fi Alliance, then the technology was marketed by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Wi-Fi is actually a trademarked term coined by the Wi-Fi Alliance. It’s a marketing name chosen to be more memorable and appealing than the technical term “IEEE 802.11”. Wi-Fi is not an acronym for Wireless Fidelity (in any language)

  32. Vicus_92 Avatar

    It was invented in Australia. We shorten the names of everything here.

    Macca’s, Servo, ‘Straya.

    We aren’t going to say “Wireless”. It’s too many syllables.

  33. TueboEmu315 Avatar

    Winternet-Finnection

  34. SwampDrainer Avatar

    Why do we say Mofo when “fucker” doesn’t have an O?

    Shit just rolls off the tongue better.

  35. 907Postal Avatar

    Ask Hedy Lamarr.

  36. Hypnowolfproductions Avatar

    It does has meaning if you decided to search for it.

    Wi-Fi is a wireless networking technology that uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed Internet access. A common misconception is that the term Wi-Fi is short for “wireless fidelity,” however Wi-Fi is a trademarked phrase that refers to IEEE 802.11x standards.

    https://watech.wa.gov/wifi-definition-and-meaning#:~:text=Wi%2DFi%20is%20a%20wireless,to%20IEEE%20802.11x%20standards.

  37. DrinkHeavy974 Avatar

    The term ‘Wi-Fi’ is not universally used. In Germany, for example, people may be confused if you ask for the ‘Wi-Fi’ password, as they typically use the term ‘WLAN’ (wireless LAN). See:https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1iwimr1/wifi_in_german_is_wlan/

  38. Jablonski1971 Avatar

    Not precisely the same thing, but a Canadian dollar coin is called a Loonie because it has a depiction of a loon on it.

    A two dollar coin is called a Toonie. There is no animal called a toon, it just… happened.

    Sometimes the answers are right there in front of you.

  39. SirDalavar Avatar

    Wireless fucking internet!

  40. NaiveZest Avatar

    The internet connection has wireless fidelity.

  41. Independent_Win_7984 Avatar

    I don’t know who you “found out” your information from. It may not be listed in Websters as such (maybe it is? I can’t keep track of some of the silliness they’ve added, recently), but “WiFi” is a direct adaptation of the phrase “HiFi”, a ubiquitous shorthand for “high fidelity”. Not “just a trademarked term”, but a popular phrase that marked a technological innovation by referencing a previous one. Whether somebody trademarked it after the fact doesn’t change that.

  42. oldjadedhippie Avatar

    Well , Wi the Fi not ?

  43. sporkmanhands Avatar

    Start calling it weefee

  44. CowboyLAN Avatar

    Always assumed it was Wireless Frequency Internet

  45. aew3 Avatar

    Some times names are just made up because it helps to sell a technology.
    You try getting your mother to connect to the 802.11ax wireless local area network. Its going to be a struggle.

  46. theluckytwig Avatar

    Obviously it stands for Wireless Fucking Internet

    /s

  47. immunogoblin1 Avatar

    Wait so it doesn’t mean wireless finternet?

  48. keemosavy Avatar

    Wireless fidelity?

  49. Young-sung Avatar

    Wireless-Fidelity

  50. flimspringfield Avatar

    OP answered his own question.

    Does he think Harold Bluetooth came up with bluetooth wireless connection?

    It’s a marketing term. Nothing more, nothing less.

  51. tycash123 Avatar

    It’s not Wireless Finternet?

  52. wxrman Avatar

    I always thought it was “Wireless Fidelity”

  53. TheDevilsAdvokaat Avatar

    Pun on hifi.

    Made it easily recognisable, plus it has “wi” in the name to remind people of “wireless”