What does Wi-Fi stand for?
This past week, a family member asked me a question related to my post about the better workplace coffeehouse, in which I mentioned the term Wi-Fi multiple times. The question wasn’t about what Wi-Fi refers to (wireless Internet access), but about what Wi-Fi stands for. Specifically, the question was if the term Wi-Fi was somehow related to Hi-Fi (high fidelity) and if Wi-Fi actually means “wireless fidelity.”
It turns out the answer is no. Wi-Fi doesn’t actually stand for anything. According to this article from BoingBoing:
“Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for anything.
It is not an acronym. There is no meaning.
Wi-Fi and the ying yang style logo were invented by Interbrand. [The founding members of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, now called the Wi-Fi Alliance] hired Interbrand to come up with the name and logo that [they] could use for [their] interoperability seal and marketing efforts. [They] needed something that was a little catchier than “IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence”.”
According to Internet.com, some of the losing names that Interbrand suggested were Skybridge, Torchlight, Flyover, Transpeed and Elevate.
UPDATE: Thanks to an awesome comment by a reader (Thanks MixtLupus - check out his blog here), it turns out that Wi-Fi does indeed stand for Wireless Fidelity. I couldn’t access the knowledge base (anyone who can and sends me a screenshot, I will be indebted!) but here is the small piece that I could see.
Tags: BoingBoing, Interbrand, Wi-Fi, Wireless
June 20th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Thanks, this helped me out.
July 23rd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
The Wi-Fi Alliance (http://www.wifialliance.org/) define their trademark as short for Wireless-Fidelity in the same way that Hi-Fi stood for High Fidelity
This is listed on the knowledge base of their site but you have to be an authorised Wi-Fi distributor to see the full article but if you search the KB for fidelity you will see part of the article in question
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm
no, the regular term for Wi-Fi mean wireless fidelity, the wifi alliance has no meaning behind it…
July 24th, 2009 at 1:44 am
I always wondered why people called it wifi…. I always called it 802.11b when it first came out.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Thanks for the comments - especially for pointing me in the right direction, @MixtLupus and @Wow.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
The articles that MixtLupus refers to are old. The alliance does not advertise WiFi as wireless fidelity anymore. You can check the glossary of that website if you have doubts. It is not broken out like WiMAX, which actually does mean something. The alliance abandoned wireless fidelity very early on.
Melissa,
You should have stood by your research or at least look into Mix’s claims before claiming that he/she is a reliable source. Just like you shouldn’t trust what I say until you look it up yourself.
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:07 am
Tnx 4 the 411 what wi-fi stand 4. I thought it was Word-Interference - Free-Internet. Lol..
January 19th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
thanks for this article!
:)
January 27th, 2010 at 8:20 am
As I’ve had a number of visitors come to my site since you credited me on the post I figured I’d return the favour and have added a link to your site on my right side advertisements (which comes up when no paid adverts exist) :)