It does not stand for Wireless Fidelity, as some have thought.
Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark, said the term was not an acronym and did not stand for anything specific. The phrase was created as a more consumer-friendly name for the technical standard “IEEE 802.11.” Therefore, it was a standalone brand name created for marketing purposes, without a specific meaning behind the letters.
However, in the early days, the organization briefly used the tagline “The Standard for Wireless Fidelity,” which likely contributed to the misconception that Wi-Fi stood for “Wireless Fidelity.”
A long note from Phil, is found here: WiFi isn’t short for “Wireless Fidelity” – Boing Boing
The branding consultant who was hired to find a name came up with 10 possibilities – and says they thought of High Fidelity or Hi-Fi as part of that process; however, as explained above, Wi-Fi is just a brand and does not mean “Wireless Fidelity”.
I worked with Phil Belanger when we both worked for Vivato. I had also had business contacts with Phil during the preceding decade when I worked at a large software company.
