Chemical elements may be named from various sources: sometimes based on the person who discovered it, or the place it was discovered. Some have Latin or Greek roots deriving from something related to the element, for example some use to which it may have been put.
Known elements All 118 discovered elements are confirmed and have a formal name and symbol, as decided by IUPAC. The last four names and symbols were added on November 28, 2016. Currently there are no unconfirmed discoveries and all seven periods (rows) of the periodic table are completed.
Etymology
Element names can refer to:
a mythological concept or character (including an astronomical object), a mineral or similar substance, a place, or geographical region, a property of the element, or a scientist.
People
Chemical elements are sometimes named after people, especially the synthetic elements discovered (created) after c. 1940. Very few are named after their discoverers, and only two have been named after living people: the element seaborgium was named after Glenn Seaborg, who was alive at the time of naming in 1997; and in 2016 oganesson was named after Yuri Oganessian (still living as of May 2026). Many transuranic elements are named after Nobel Prize winners:
Other transuranic elements are named after scientists who did not receive the prize:
The transuranic element flerovium was named after the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, which in turn was named after Georgy Flyorov. The IUPAC stated that the element was named after the laboratory, not Flyorov, but Yuri Oganessian, who led the team at the laboratory that discovered the element, said that the intention of the naming was to honor Flyorov. The element samarium is named after Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, and gadolinium is indirectly named (via the mineral gadolinite) after Johan Gadolin. Lecoq de Boisbaudran, who named the element gallium after his native land of France (from Latin Gallia meaning Gaul) denied that the element's naming was for a pun on his own name ("le coq" means "the rooster" in French, as does "gallus" in Latin).
Places on earth
Some chemical elements are named after places on the planet earth. Elements which are named after currently existing countries and cities are as:
Polonium, named after Poland Francium and gallium, both named after France Nihonium, named after Japan Germanium was named for Germany Beryllium was named after the mineral beryl, whose name may have come from Belur, a city in Karnataka state of India. Indium gets its name from the indigo color seen in its spectrum, the Latin indicum meaning "of India", which makes it indirectly named after India. Americium was named after the Americas. Europium was named after Europe. Berkelium was named after American city Berkeley, which is in turn named after the philosopher George Berkeley. Tennessine and Californium were named after American states Tennessee and California respectively. Dubnium and Moscovium were named after Russia's Dubna and Moscow cities. Several places in Scandinavia have elements named after them.
Yttrium, terbium, erbium, and ytterbium are all named for the Swedish village of Ytterby, where their ores were first found. Hafnium is named after Hafnia, the Latin name for Danish capital Copenhagen. Holmium is named after Holmia, Latin for the Swedish capital Stockholm. Scandium comes from the Latin word for Scandinavia. Thulium is from the Ancient Greek word for the remote Arctic land that the Romans called ultima Thule. A number of other elements are named after classical words for various places.
Ruthenium is from the Latin name for the region including Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Lutetium is named after Lutetia, the Latin name for Paris. Copper's name comes from an Old English word derived from the Latin name for the island of Cyprus. The names of both magnesium and manganese derive from the Greek region of Magnesia.
Astronomical objects The naming of elements from astronomical objects stems from the ancient association of metals with the various planets and their gods, as follows: mercury with Mercury; copper with Venus; iron with Mars (named for the Roman god of war); tin with Jupiter (named for the Roman king of the gods); and lead with Saturn (named for the ancient, slow god who was the father of Jupiter). The Sun and the Moon were associated with gold and silver, respectively. A few other elements are directly named for astronomical bodies, including planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. Uranium, neptunium, plutonium, cerium, and palladium were named after Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Ceres, and Pallas, respectively. The name selenium comes from the Greek word for the Moon (Σελήνη, Selene). Similarly, the name helium is derived from the Greek word for the Sun (Ἢλιος, Helios), as the first evidence for helium came in the form of distinctive emission lines from the Sun that were not explainable by any of the known elements in the 1870s. Tellurium is named after the Latin word tellus, meaning "earth".
Minerals Many elements are named after the minerals in which they are found, e.g. calcium after Latin calx (lime), silicon is named after Latin silex (sand), sodium after soda and potassium after potash.
Temporary names
In 1979, IUPAC published recommendations for their systematic element names to be used for yet unnamed or undiscovered elements as a placeholder, until the discovery of the element is confirmed and a permanent name is decided on. The recommendations are mostly ignored among scientists, who simply call these elements by their atomic number, for example "element 119" (instead of "ununennium"), with the symbol of (119) or even simply 119. Since 2002, the IUPAC Inorganic Chemistry Division has been the official body responsible with assigning official names to new elements, with the IUPAC Council making the final decision.
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