Alexander Graham Bell suggested “ahoy”, instead of “hello”, as the way to answer his new telephone.
Alexander Graham Bell, the Scottish-born innovator credited with patenting the first commercial telephone, originally suggested ‘Ahoy-hoy’ as the standard greeting when answering the telephone. ‘Ahoy’ had been around at least 100 years longer than ‘hello’, and its nautical origins along with common usage as a greeting made it a strong candidate.