What does Wi-Fi stand for?

We bandy around the term Wi-Fi almost daily. What does it stand for?

Rather bizarrely, the answer is absolutely nothing. The way it is written looks like an abbreviation, doesn’t it? Something like Wireless Fidelity? But no. It stands for nothing.

In the words of Phil Belanger, of the Wi-Fi Alliance “Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for anything. It is not an acronym. There is no meaning.”

So where did it come from?

It was a marketing invention.

What became known as the Wi-Fi Alliance formed in 1999 as a trade association responsible for the technology trademark. At that time, the technology standard was called “IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence.”

With good reason, the association felt that they needed a simpler name for the technology and contracted a marketing agency to come up with some ideas. Wi-Fi was one of 10 names that was presented to the association.