While a few elements are known since ancient history, most have been discovered since the 17th century, and the first list of elements was compiled by French chemist Antoine Lavoisier in 1789. The development of the atomic theory, and new techniques using electricity and spectroscopy, led to the discovery of several new elements in the 19th century. Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev created the first periodic table of the elements in 1869 and predicted the existence of several new elements that were eventually found in the following decades. At the end of the 19th century, the noble gases were isolated, and new discoveries such as radioactivity and X-rays led to several elements being added to the periodic table. The last naturally occurring elements were found in the early 20th century. Since then, numerous elements that are not present in nature have been synthesized thanks to nuclear reactors and particle accelerators.
The names of the elements reflect the time of their discovery. The ones that have been known for thousands of years have ancient roots, while modern discoveries often have names taken from Latin or Ancient Greek. Some elements are named after celestial objects, mythological figures, or the places where they were found. Most notably, the Swedish town of Ytterby gave its name to four elements: yttrium, terbium, erbium, and ytterbium. Many of the more recently synthesized elements are named after people, either their discoverer or another prominent scientist.
Note: when describing the etymology of some element names, a few come from reconstructed terms, words that are not directly recorded in their languages, but are hypothesized to have existed from etymological analysis. These reconstructed terms are denoted with an asterisk (*).
The periodic table of the elements (Sandbh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).
1 – Hydrogen (H)
Swiss alchemist Paracelsus was the first to observe hydrogen around 1520, while Anglo-Irish chemist Robert Boyle produced the gas during his experiments in 1671. However, the element was only recognized as a separate element by English scientist Henry Cavendish in 1766. Its name, originally coined as hydrogène in French, means “water-former”, and comes from the Greek húdōr (ὕδωρ) (“water”) and -genḗs (-γενής) (“producer”).
2 – Helium (He)
Helium was found in 1868 from the analysis of the solar spectrum, when French astronomer Pierre Janssen observed a yellow line that he initially assumed to be that of sodium. Later that same year, English astronomer Norman Lockyer observed the same line and concluded that it was caused by an unknown element, that he named after the Ancient Greek word for the Sun, hḗlios (ἥλῐος). Helium was detected on Earth for the first time by Italian physicist Luigi Palmieri on Mount Vesuvius in 1881.
3 – Lithium (Li)
Lithium was discovered in 1817 by Swedish chemist Johan August Arfwedson from the analysis of a mineral found in Sweden in 1800. The name comes from the Ancient Greek líthos (λῐ́θος), meaning “stone”.
4 – Beryllium (Be)
Beryllium was discovered in 1798 by French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin by analyzing a mineral known since ancient times called beryl. The element was independently isolated by Friedrich Wöhler and Antoine Bussy in 1828. Beryllium is named after beryl, while this word derives from the Ancient Greek bḗrullos (βήρυλλος), which in turn might descend from Belur, a town in India.
5 – Boron (B)
Borax, a compound of boron, was discovered in China around the year 300, but the element was only hypothesized in the 18th century. Boron was isolated by English chemist Humphry Davy, and French chemists Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard in 1808. Davy named it after borax, initially calling it boracium, and then changing it to boron. The word borax comes from the Arabic word for the mineral, bawraq (بَوْرَق).
6 – Carbon (C)
Carbon in the form of charcoal was used by prehistoric humans, while diamonds and graphite are known since ancient times. However, charcoal and diamonds were recognized as being forms of the same element only in 1772 by Lavoisier. In 1779, Swedish pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele showed that graphite was also a form of the same element. Lavoisier listed carbon as an element in his 1789 textbook, naming it after the Latin word for coal and charcoal, carbō, which derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *kerh₃-, meaning “to burn”.
7 – Nitrogen (N)
Nitrogen was discovered by Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772. The element was studied by other chemists soon afterwards, and was named azote by Lavoisier, meaning “without life”, from the Greek a- (“without”) and zōḗ (“life”). Lavoisier described the element as the part of air that cannot sustain life, but since other gases can also be toxic, the name was not universally accepted. The word nitrogen was coined as nitrogène by French chemist Jean-Antoine Chaptal, from nitre, meaning saltpetre (potassium nitrate), and the Greek -genḗs (-γενής), meaning “producer”.
8 – Oxygen (O)
Polish alchemist Michael Sendivogius was the first to identify oxygen between 1598 and 1604, but the element was isolated for the first time by Scheele in 1771, who only published his findings in 1777. Meanwhile, British chemist Joseph Priestley liberated oxygen in 1774, and Lavoisier also claimed to have discovered the element independently. Its name, originally coined as oxygène in French, means “acid-former” and comes from the Greek oxús (ὀξῠ́ς) (“acid” or “sharp”) and -genḗs (-γενής) (“producer”).
9 – Fluorine (F)
Compounds containing fluorine were first described in the 16th century, while the element was isolated by French chemist Henri Moissan in 1886, after its existence was hypothesized decades earlier. Moissan won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine. The name was coined by Davy in 1813 from the Latin word fluor, meaning “flow”.
10 – Neon (Ne)
British chemists William Ramsey and Morris Travers discovered neon while working with liquid air in 1898, soon after discovering krypton. For this discovery and other works on noble gases, Ramsey received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The name derives from the Ancient Greek néon (νέον), neuter of néos (νέος), meaning “new”.
11 – Sodium (Na)
Compounds that include sodium, such as table salt, have been known for thousands of years. However, sodium has only been isolated for the first time in 1807 by Davy. The word sodium derives from the Italian soda, a name used for sodium carbonate, in turn derived from the Arabic suwaydāʔ (سُوَيْدَاء), the name of the Suaeda genus of plants, once processed as a source for sodium carbonate. The symbol Na comes from Neo-Latin natrium, coined in 1814 from the German Natron, a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, ultimately from its Egyptian name nṯrj.
12 – Magnesium (Mg)
Magnesium was first isolated by Davy in 1808 from a mineral called magnesia (magnesium oxide). The name comes from Magnesia, a region of Thessaly, in Greece.
13 – Aluminium (Al)
Alum, a compound containing aluminium, has been known since ancient times, but its nature remained unknown until 1824, when the element was isolated for the first time by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, after its existence was hypothesized since the 16th century. The name derives from alum and its Latin name alūmen, which descends from Proto-Indo-European roots meaning “bitter salt”. In North American English, the name is commonly spelled as “aluminum”.
14 – Silicon (Si)
Silicon-based materials have been used since ancient times, but only in the 18th century the existence of the element was hypothesized. It was isolated for the first time by Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1823. The name was coined from the Latin word silex, meaning “flint”, a mineral made of silicon dioxide.
15 – Phosphorus (P)
Phosphorus was discovered and isolated for the first time by German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669 while experimenting with urine. He was trying to create a philosopher’s stone, but he instead produced a material that glowed in the dark. The name comes from the Ancient Greek phōsphóros (φωσφόρος), meaning “bearer of light”, from phôs (φῶς) (“light”) and -phóros (-φόρος) (“bearing”)
16 – Sulfur (S)
Sulfur was first used more than 4000 years ago in Ancient Egypt, and has been widely utilized ever since. Its English name is the same as the Latin one, which has an unclear origin.
17 – Chlorine (Cl)
Chlorine has been known in compounds such as table salt since ancient times, but was discovered as an element much later. Scheele was the first to isolate chlorine in 1774, but it was Davy that recognized it as an element and not a compound in 1810. Davy also coined the name, from the Ancient Greek khlōrós (χλωρός), meaning “pale green”.
18 – Argon (Ar)
Argon was isolated from air in 1894 by British scientists Lord Rayleigh and William Ramsay. In 1904, they received the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry respectively for their discovery. The name of the element comes from the Ancient Greek argón (ᾰ̓ργόν), the neuter form of ārgós (ᾱ̓ργός), meaning “idle” or “lazy”, because of its inertness.
19 – Potassium (K)
Similarly to sodium, potassium was only known in compounds until it was isolated for the first time by Davy in 1807. The word potassium comes from potash, a compound produced by burning wood to ash in a pot. This name was adapted from the Dutch potasch. The symbol K comes from the Neo-Latin and German Kalium, coined from the English word kali, an old term for alkali derived from the Arabic al-qaly (اَلْقِلْي), related to qalā (قَلَى), meaning “to fry”.
20 – Calcium (Ca)
While calcium compounds have been known for millennia, the element was only isolated in 1808 by Davy. The name was coined by Davy from the Latin calx, meaning “lime”, since it was isolated from this material. This Latin term derives from the Ancient Greek khálix (χάλιξ), meaning “pebble”.
21 – Scandium (Sc)
Initially predicted by Mendeleev, scandium was discovered by Swedish chemist Lars Fredrik Nilson in 1879 by examining some minerals. The element was named after Scandia, the Latin name for Scandinavia.
22 – Titanium (Ti)
Titanium was discovered by English mineralogist William Gregor in 1791, who identified a new metal while analyzing a mineral in Cornwall, Great Britain. German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth independently found the new element in 1795, and named it after the Titans of Greek mythology. Titanium was isolated for the first time by Berzelius in 1825.
23 – Vanadium (V)
Vanadium was discovered by Spanish scientist Andrés Manuel del Río in Mexico in 1801 while analyzing some local minerals. It was isolated for the first time in 1867 by British chemist Henry Roscoe. The element was named after Vanadis, one of the names of the Norse goddess Freyja, because of the many beautiful chemical compounds containing vanadium.
24 – Chromium (Cr)
Chromium was discovered by Vauquelin in 1797 by examining minerals from the Ural Mountains, in Russia. The name of the element comes from the Ancient Greek khrôma (χρῶμᾰ), meaning “color”, due to its colorful compounds.
25 – Manganese (Mn)
Manganese compounds were used in glassmaking since ancient times, but the element was only isolated in 1774 by Swedish chemist Johan Gottlieb Gahn. Similarly to magnesium, its name comes from the Greek region of Magnesia.
26 – Iron (Fe)
One of the oldest known elements, the diffusion of iron production led to the start of the Iron Age at the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The name comes from the Proto-Celtic *īsarnom, deriving from the Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥, meaning “blood”. The symbol Fe comes from the Latin name for the element, ferrum, which has an unclear origin.
27 – Cobalt (Co)
Cobalt compounds have been used since ancient times to give a blue color to glass and porcelain, but the element was only discovered and recognized as separate by Swedish chemist Georg Brandt around 1735. Its name comes from the German Kobalt, derived from Kobold, meaning “goblin”, a term used by miners to call minerals containing cobalt.
28 – Nickel (Ni)
Nickel was unintentionally used since ancient times, but it was only recognized as an element in 1751, when Swedish mineralogist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt was trying to extract copper at a cobalt mine in Sweden. For centuries, German miners who were looking for copper and instead found a mineral now called nickeline, blamed a mischievous sprite called Nickel, and so the element was named after it.
29 – Copper (Cu)
Copper was mined and crafted by some of the oldest known civilizations, with the earliest use dating around 9000 BCE in the Middle East. It was one of the most important and widely used materials in ancient times, when it was often alloyed with tin to create bronze. The name and the symbol derive from the Latin word for the element, cuprum, which in turn comes from Kúpros (Κῠ́προς), the Ancient Greek name for the island of Cyprus.
30 – Zinc (Zn)
Zinc was first used in India around 1000 BCE, but it was only recognized as a distinct metal in the 14th century, also in India. Its name likely comes from the German Zink, derived from the Proto-Germanic *tindaz and the Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts, meaning “tooth”. This might be due to the fact that metallic zinc crystals look similar to teeth, but the origin of the word is still debated.
31 – Gallium (Ga)
Predicted by Mendeleev, Gallium was discovered in 1875 by French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, using spectroscopy. He named the element after Gallia, the Latin name for Gaul, a historical region that includes modern-day France. It was also suggested that he might have named the element after himself, since “le coq” means “rooster” in French, which is gallus in Latin, but he denied this claim.
32 – Germanium (Ge)
Germanium was one of the elements predicted by Mendeleev, and was discovered by German chemist Clemens Winkler in 1886, while examining a mineral extracted the previous year. Winkler initially wanted to name the element neptunium, since it was predicted before being discovered, just like the planet Neptune, but since this name was taken by another proposed element (which was not the element now known as neptunium), he changed it to germanium, from the Latin name of his country, Germania.
33 – Arsenic (As)
Arsenic was first described by Greco-Egyptian alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis around the year 300, who obtained it from a mineral called realgar. The name arsenic comes from the Greek arsenikón (ἀρσενῐκόν), derived from the Syriac word zarnīḵā (ܙܪܢܝܟܐ), based on the Persian word zar (زر), meaning “gold”, and ultimately descending from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰelh₃-, meaning “yellow”.
34 – Selenium (Se)
Berzelius and Gahn discovered selenium in 1817 by examining minerals from a mine in Sweden. They initially believed that it was tellurium before finding out that it was a new element so, since tellurium is named after the Earth, selenium was named after the Moon, from its Ancient Greek name selḗnē (σελήνη).
35 – Bromine (Br)
Bromine was independently discovered by Carl Jacob Löwig and Antoine Jérôme Balard. Löwig isolated the element from a water spring in Germany in 1825, but published his findings only two years later. Meanwhile, Balard found bromine analyzing seaweed ash from the salt marshes of Montpellier, France, in 1826. The name of the element comes from the Ancient Greek brômos (βρῶμος), meaning “stink”, because of the strong smell of its vapors.
36 – Krypton (Kr)
Ramsey and Travers discovered krypton in 1898 while experimenting with liquid air. Ramsey won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his works on noble gases such as krypton. The name of the element derives from the Ancient Greek kruptós (κρυπτός), meaning “hidden”.
37 – Rubidium (Rb)
Rubidium was discovered by German scientists Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff in 1861 from the analysis of the spectral lines of the mineral lepidolite. They named the element from the Latin word rūbidus, meaning “dark red”, because of the red lines in its emission spectrum.
38 – Strontium (Sr)
Strontium was first recognized as an element in the late 18th century in a mineral called strontianite, and was isolated by Davy in 1808. The mineral and the element are named after Strontian, the Scottish village where strontianite was found.
39 – Yttrium (Y)
In 1787, Swedish military officer and amateur geologist Carl Axel Arrhenius found a mineral near the village of Ytterby, in Sweden, and named it ytterbite. Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin identified a new oxide in ytterbite in 1789, while the element was first isolated in 1828 by Friedrich Wöhler. The element was named after the town where it was found.
40 – Zirconium (Zr)
Zircon is known since ancient times, but only in 1789 Klaproth discovered that it contained a new element. Berzelius was the first to isolate zirconium in 1824. The name of the element derives from zircon, while this word descends from the Persian zargun (زرگون), meaning “gold-like”.
41 – Niobium (Nb)
English chemist Charles Hatchett identified niobium in 1801 in a mineral from Connecticut, United States, and he initially named the element columbium, from Columbia, a poetic name for the United States. The element was initially confused with the closely related tantalum, until German mineralogist Heinrich Rose proved the difference between the two. Rose named niobium after Niobe, the daughter of Greek mythological figure Tantalus. Niobium was later isolated by Swedish chemist Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand in 1864.
42 – Molybdenum (Mo)
Molybdenum was isolated by Scheele in 1778 from molybdenite, a mineral previously known as molybdena. This material was often confused with lead, and its name comes from the Ancient Greek word for lead, mólubdos (μόλυβδος), derived from the Proto-Indo-European root mergʷ-, meaning “dark”.
43 – Technetium (Tc)
Predicted by Mendeleev, various scientists claimed the discovery of element 43, but they were all disproven. The new element was finally confirmed in 1937 by Italian scientists Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segrè, who isolated it from a molybdenum sample that was used in a cyclotron. The name panormium was initially proposed, from Panormus, the Latin name for Palermo, the city where it was discovered, but the element was eventually called technetium, from the Ancient Greek tekhnētós (τεχνητός), meaning “artificial”, since it was the first element to be produced artificially.
44 – Ruthenium (Ru)
Ruthenium was discovered in 1844 by Karl Ernst Claus, a Russian chemist of Baltic German origins born in modern-day Estonia. Claus isolated ruthenium from platinum residues and named it after Ruthenia, a historical Latin name for Russia.
45 – Rhodium (Rh)
Rhodium was discovered by English chemist William Hyde Wollaston in 1804 by analyzing minerals from South America. The name of the element derives from the Ancient Greek rhódon (ῥόδον), meaning “rose”, due to the color of its salts’ solutions.
46 – Palladium (Pd)
Similarly to rhodium, palladium was found by Wollaston in 1802 in some minerals from South America. He named the element after the asteroid Pallas, which was discovered a few weeks earlier and was considered a planet at the time.
47 – Silver (Ag)
Silver has been known since prehistory, and was widely used in ancient times. Its English name derives from the Proto-Germanic root silubrą, of uncertain origin. The symbol instead comes from the Latin name for the element, argentum, which in turn derives from the Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥ǵn̥tóm, and its root *h₂erǵ-, meaning “white” or “glittering”.
48 – Cadmium (Cd)
Cadmium was discovered in 1817 by German chemist Friedrich Stromeyer from the analysis of some zinc compounds. The element was named after the zinc compound calamine, called kadmeíā (κᾰδμείᾱ) in Ancient Greek, from Cadmus (Kádmos (Κᾰ́δμος) in Ancient Greek), the legendary founder of Thebes.
49 – Indium (In)
Indium was found in 1863 by German chemists Ferdinand Reich and Hieronymous Theodor Richter using spectroscopy. Because of its blue spectral emission lines, they named the element after the color indigo, a word derived from the Latin indicus, meaning “from India”.
50 – Tin (Sn)
Tin has been extracted and used since around 3000 BCE, and was alloyed with copper to form bronze, leading to the so-called Bronze Age. The English name comes from the Proto-Germanic word for the metal, *tiną, while the symbol derives from its Latin name stannum, which descends from the Proto-Celtic *stagnos.
51 – Antimony (Sb)
Antimony has been known for thousands of years, as it was already used in Ancient Egypt around 3000 BCE. Its name comes from the medieval Latin word antimonium, which has an uncertain origin. It is possibly derived from the Arabic word for the element, ʔiṯmid (إِثْمِد), coming from its Egyptian name sdm. The symbol Sb comes from the classical Latin name of the element, stibium, which has probably the same etymology as the word antimony.
52 – Tellurium (Te)
Tellurium was discovered in a mine in Romania during the 18th century. Recognized as an unknown metal by Austrian mineralogist Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein in 1782, it was isolated for the first time by Klaproth in 1798. The name tellurium comes from the Latin tellūs, and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European root *telh₂-, both meaning “ground”. Tellūs is also a name for Earth in Latin.
53 – Iodine (I)
Iodine was found by French chemist Bernard Courtois in 1811 after burning seaweed. The name of the element comes from the Ancient Greek ioeidḗs (ἰοειδής), meaning “violet”, due to the color of its vapor.
54 – Xenon (Xe)
After discovering krypton and neon, Ramsey and Travers found another noble gas, xenon, while working with liquid air in 1898. Ramsey was awarded the 1904 Noble Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries on noble gases. The name derives from the Ancient Greek xénon (ξένον), neuter of xénos (ξένος), meaning “foreign” or “strange”.
55 – Caesium (Cs)
Caesium was discovered in the water of a spring in Germany by Bunsen and Kirchhoff in 1860. They named the element after the Latin word caesius, meaning “sky-blue”, because of the blue color of the lines in its emission spectrum.
56 – Barium (Ba)
Barium minerals were known in the Middle Ages, but the element was discovered by Scheele in 1772 and isolated by Davy in 1808. Davy coined the name from baryta, a compound of barium, with this term being derived from the Ancient Greek barús (βᾰρῠ́ς), meaning “heavy”.
57 – Lanthanum (La)
The analysis of a mineral found in Sweden in 1751 led to the discovery of four different elements. After cerium was discovered in 1803, Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander found two oxides in 1839, and he named them lanthana and didymia. Lanthanum was isolated from lanthana, with the name deriving from the Ancient Greek lanthánō (λᾰνθᾰ́νω), meaning “to escape notice”, since it went undetected for a long time.
58 – Cerium (Ce)
Cerium was independently discovered in 1803 by Berzelius and Hisinger in Sweden, and by Klaproth in Germany in different minerals. Berzelius named the element after the dwarf planet Ceres, which was discovered in 1801 and was considered a planet at the time.
59 – Praseodymium (Pr)
After Mosander found the oxide didymia in 1839, he isolated didymium in 1841. He initially believed that it was an element, but it was later proved to be a mixture of neodymium and praseodymium in 1885 by Austrian scientist Carl Auer von Welsbach, who separated the two elements. The name comes from the Ancient Greek prásios (πράσῐος), meaning “light green”, and dídumos (δῐ́δῠμος), meaning “twin”.
60 – Neodymium (Nd)
Neodymium has the same history as praseodymium, as both were separated from didymium by Welsbach in 1885. The name comes from the Ancient Greek néos (νέος), meaning “new”, and dídumos (δῐ́δῠμος), meaning “twin”.
61 – Promethium (Pm)
Predicted by Czech chemist Bohuslav Brauner in 1902, for decades scientists tried unsuccesfully to find element 61, with various claims being later proven incorrect. Promethium was finally produced in 1945 by American chemists Jacob A. Marinsky, Lawrence E. Glendenin, and Charles D. Coryell, while working with the products of the fission of uranium. The element was named prometheum, after the Greek god Prometheus, who stole fire from Mount Olympus and brought it to humans, with the spelling later being changed to promethium.
62 – Samarium (Sm)
Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered samarium while examining the mineral samarskite in 1879. The name of the element comes from the mineral, which was named after Russian mining engineer Vassili Samarsky-Bykhovets, who granted access to the samples gathered in the Ural Mountains to some German mineralogists.
63 – Europium (Eu)
French chemist Eugène-Anatole Demarçay found europium in 1896 after examining samples of the recently discovered samarium, that he suspected to be contaminated with an unknown element. Demarçay isolated europium in 1901, and named it after Europe.
64 – Gadolinium (Gd)
Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac discovered gadolinium from the spectral analysis of the mineral gadolinite in 1880. The element and the mineral are named after Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin, who discovered yttrium.
65 – Terbium (Tb)
Terbium was discovered together with erbium in 1843 by Mosander in some minerals from Ytterby, a village in Sweden. Both elements are named after the town.
66 – Dysprosium (Dy)
Lecoq de Boisbaudran found dysprosium while working with holmium oxide in 1886, after several failed attempts. For this reason, he named it from the Ancient Greek dusprósitos (δυσπρόσιτος), meaning “hard to get”.
67 – Holmium (Ho)
Swiss chemists Jacques-Louis Soret and Marc Delafontaine discovered holmium in 1878 using spectroscopy. The element was found independently by Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve, together with thulium. Cleve named this element after his hometown, Stockholm.
68 – Erbium (Er)
Erbium was discovered by Mosander in 1843 from the analysis of minerals from Ytterby, a village in Sweden. Erbium was found together with terbium, and both are named after the town where they were discovered.
69 – Thulium (Tm)
Cleve discovered thulium and holmium together in 1879 by examining some oxides. He named this element after Thule, a classical name for a semi-mythical land in the far north.
70 – Ytterbium (Yb)
Ytterbium was discovered in 1878 by Marignac while examining minerals from Ytterby, a village in Sweden. Similarly to yttrium, terbium, and erbium, it is named after this town.
71 – Lutetium (Lu)
In 1907, French scientist Georges Urbain and Austrian mineralogist Carl Auer von Welsbach independently discovered lutetium as an impurity in compounds previously thought to only contain ytterbium. Urbain called the element lutecium, from Lutetia, the Latin name for Paris, while Welsbach gave it the name cassiopeium, after the constellation of Cassiopeia. In 1909, the element was officially called lutecium based on the fact that Urbain was the first to describe the separation of the element from ytterbium. IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) changed the spelling to lutetium in 1949.
72 – Hafnium (Hf)
Originally predicted by Mendeleev, the discovery of hafnium was first claimed by Urbain in 1907, who called it celtium, after the Celtic peoples. However, his results did not match the properties of the element, that was actually discovered by Dutch physicist Dirk Coster and Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy in 1923 through X-ray spectroscopy. The element is named after Copenhagen, the city where it was discovered, from its Latin name Hafnia, derived from the Danish havn, meaning “harbor”.
73 – Tantalum (Ta)
Swedish chemist Anders Gustaf Ekeberg found tantalum in some minerals from Sweden and Finland in 1802, and named it after Greek mythological figure Tantalus. Initially confused with the closely related niobium, the two elements were later recognized as separate by Heinrich Rose. Rose initially named the two elements niobium and pelopium, from Niobe and Pelops, daughter and son of Tantalus. Pelopium was later proven to be a mixture of tantalum and niobium, so tantalum retained the name coined by Ekeberg. The element was isolated by Blomstrand in 1864.
74 – Tungsten (W)
Tungsten was discovered by Scheele in 1781, after isolating it from a mineral now called scheelite, but then known as tungsten. This word means “heavy stone”, and comes from the Swedish tung (“heavy”) and sten (“stone”). Tungsten is also called wolfram, from the mineral wolframite, hence its symbol W. The etymology is unclear, but this word might come from the German wolf-rahm, meaning “wolf’s foam”, as the mineral was described as consuming a large amount of tin when it was extracted, devouring it like a wolf.
75 – Rhenium (Re)
Rhenium was discovered by Japanese chemist Masataka Ogawa in 1908, but he erroneously announced it as element 43, now known as technetium, and part of the same group as rhenium in the periodic table. The element was rediscovered by German scientists Walter Noddack, Ida Noddack, and Otto Berg in 1925 while analyzing various minerals. Ogawa initially named the element nipponium, from Nippon (日本), a Japanese name for Japan, while the Germans called it rhenium, from Rhenus, the Latin name for the Rhine river. Since nipponium was thought to be element 43, rhenium was adopted as the name for element 75.
76 – Osmium (Os)
Osmium and iridium were discovered in 1803 by English chemist Smithson Tennant from the analysis of the residue obtained from the dissolution of platinum. The name of the element comes from the Ancient Greek osmḗ (ὀσμή), meaning “smell”, because of the strong smell of its oxide.
77 – Iridium (Ir)
Discovered by Tennant in 1803 together with osmium, iridium was named after Iris, the Greek goddess of rainbow, because of the many colored salts obtained from the element.
78 – Platinum (Pt)
Platinum was first used in South America sometime between 600 BCE and 200 CE, and was described by Europeans in 1557, but traces of the element have also been found in ancient Egyptian tombs. Platinum was identified as a pure element in the 18th century. The name comes from the Spanish platina, meaning “little silver”, in turn derived from the Greek platús (πλᾰτῠ́ς), and its Proto-Indo-European root *pleth₂-, both meaning “flat”.
79 – Gold (Au)
Gold is known and widely used since prehistoric times. Its name derives from the Proto-Germanic *gulþą and the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰelh₃-, meaning “yellow”. The symbol Au comes from the Latin word for the element, aurum, which derives from the Proto-Italic *auzom and the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ews-, meaning “to become light” or “to dawn”.
80 – Mercury (Hg)
Mercury is known since ancient times and has been found in Egyptian tombs dating from 1500 BCE, while cinnabar, the most common natural source of mercury, has been used since the Neolithic. It is named after the Roman god Mercury, associated with speed. The symbol Hg comes from the Latin hydrargyrum and the Ancient Greek hudrárguros (ὑδράργῠρος), meaning “water silver”. Similarly, in English it was once known as quicksilver, literally meaning “living silver”.
81 – Thallium (Tl)
Thallium was discovered by English chemist William Crookes in 1861 using flame spectroscopy. Similarly to rubidium, caesium, and indium, thallium was named after the color of its spectral lines, which in this case are green, from the Ancient Greek thallós (θᾰλλός), meaning “green twig”.
82 – Lead (Pb)
Lead has been used since prehistoric times, with the earliest known artifacts made with this element coming from Ancient Egypt. Widely used by the Romans, its symbol Pb comes from the Latin word for the element, plumbum, derived from the Ancient Greek mólubdos (μόλυβδος), which in turn descends from the Proto-Indo-European root mergʷ-, meaning “dark”. The English name comes from the Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *plewd- (“to flow”).
83 – Bismuth (Bi)
Bismuth is known since ancient times and was used by the Incas, but it was confused with lead and tin. Only in the 16th century German scholar Georgius Agricola recognized it as a separate element. The name comes from the German Wismuth, derived via Latin and Arabic from the Greek psīmúthion (ψῑμύθῐον), meaning “white lead”.
84 – Polonium (Po)
Polonium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, while experimenting with radioactive uranium and thorium. The element was named after Marie Curie’s homeland of Poland, from its Latin name Polonia, a country that at the time was divided between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. Marie Curie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of polonium and radium.
85 – Astatine (At)
Astatine was predicted by Mendeleev, but it was not found until 1940, despite several claims later proven to be incorrect. Segrè, together with American physicists Dale R. Corson and Kenneth Ross MacKenzie discovered astatine after bombarding bismuth with alpha particles. The name of the element comes from the Ancient Greek ástatos (ἄστατος), meaning “unstable”, because of its high radioactivity.
86 – Radon (Rn)
New Zealander physicist Ernest Rutherford and American engineer Robert Bowie Owens discovered radon in 1899 while working with radioactive compounds of thorium. Rutherford initially called the gas “thorium emanation”, while German physicist Friedrich Ernst Dorn isolated a radioactive gas from radium compounds in 1900, and called it “radium emanation”. Similarly, French chemist discovered “actinium emanation” from radioactive actinium compounds in 1903. The names of these three gases were later shortened to thoron, radon, and actinon, before they were proven to be isotopes of the same element. Ramsey suggested the name niton, from the Latin nitēre, meaning “to shine”, but in 1923, IUPAC chose the name of the most stable isotope, radon, as the name of the element.
87 – Francium (Fr)
Predicted by Mendeleev, various scientists claimed to have discovered element 87 in the early 20th century, but all claims were either incomplete or incorrect. French physicist Marguerite Perey was the first to unquestionably discover the new element in 1939, as a product of the decay of actinium. This was the last element to be discovered in nature, rather than being produced artificially. Perey initially proposed the name catium, since she thought this was the most electropositive cation of the elements, but later changed it to francium, after France, her native country.
88 – Radium (Ra)
Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium a few months after finding polonium in 1898, while working with radioactive minerals containing uranium. The element got its name because of its radioactivity, and from the Latin word radius, meaning “ray”. Marie Curie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of polonium and radium.
89 – Actinium (Ac)
The discovery of a new element was announced in 1899 by French chemist André-Louis Debierne, who was working on the same radioactive materials from which Marie and Pierre Curie found radium. Debierne named it actinium from the Ancient Greek aktís (ἀκτίς), meaning “ray”. In 1902, German chemist Friedrich Oskar Giesel discovered an element similar to lanthanum, and named it emanium, from emanation. The substances were initially regarded as being the same element, so the name actinium was chosen, since it came first. However, later analysis has suggested that Debierne had no more than small traces of actinium in his results, so Giesel is now credited with the discovery of the element.
90 – Thorium (Th)
In 1828, Norwegian mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark found an unknown mineral and sent it to Berzelius for examination. Berzelius determined that the mineral contained a new element, that he named after the Norse god Thor.
91 – Protactinium (Pa)
Protactinium was predicted by Mendeleev, and was isolated by Crookes in 1900, who did not recognize it as a new element. The first to identify protactinium were Polish scientist Kazimierz Fajans and German chemist Oswald Helmuth Göhring in 1913, while studying the decay of uranium. They named it brevium, from the Latin brevis, meaning “brief”, because of its short half-life. Austrian-Swedish physicist Lise Meitner and German chemist Otto Hahn obtained a much more stable isotope in 1917. They named it protoactinium, from the Ancient Greek prôtos (πρῶτος), meaning “first” or “before”, and the element actinium, since actinium can be produced from the radioactive decay of protactinium. The name was later shortened from protoactinium to protactinium.
92 – Uranium (U)
Uranium oxide has been used since ancient times, but the element was discovered by Klaproth in 1789 and isolated by French chemist Eugène-Melchior Péligot in 1841. Klaproth named the element after the planet Uranus, which was discovered in 1781.
93 – Neptunium (Np)
After various failed attempts and unconfirmed claims by several scientists, American physicists Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson produced neptunium in 1940, after irradiating uranium with neutrons. As this was the first element beyond uranium to be discovered, it was named after the planet Neptune.
94 – Plutonium (Pu)
Plutonium was first produced and isolated in 1941 by Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, Emilio Segrè, Joseph W. Kennedy, and Arthur Wahl, by bombarding uranium with deuterons. Seaborg and McMillan won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discoveries of transuranium elements. Similarly to neptunium, this element was named after dwarf planet Pluto, then considered a planet.
95 – Americium (Am)
Americium was synthesized by irradiating plutonium with neutrons by American scientists Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, Albert Ghiorso, and Leon O. Morgan in 1944, shortly after discovering curium while working on the Manhattan Project, that led to the production of the first nuclear weapons. For this reason, the discovery of americium and curium was only revealed after the end of World War II. The element is named after the Americas.
96 – Curium (Cm)
Curium was produced and isolated in 1944 by Seaborg, James, and Ghiorso by bombarding plutonium with alpha particles while working on the Manhattan Project. The element is named after Marie and Pierre Curie, who discovered polonium and radium and made important researches on radioactivity.
97 – Berkelium (Bk)
Berkelium was created in 1949 by Seaborg, Ghiorso, Thompson, and Street by bombarding americium with alpha particles. It is named after the place where it was discovered, the University of California, Berkeley. The town is named after George Berkeley, an Anglo-Irish philosopher.
98 – Californium (Cf)
The same team that produced berkelium also synthesized californium in 1950 by bombarding curium with alpha particles. The element is named after the state of California, United States, where it was discovered.
99 – Einsteinium (Es)
Einsteinium was identified in 1952 by a team led by Ghiorso after the thermonuclear explosion of the Ivy Mike nuclear test at the Enewetak Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. It is named after Albert Einstein, one of the most prominent and influential scientists of all time.
100 – Fermium (Fm)
Similarly to einstenium, fermium was also identified by examining the fallout of the Ivy Mike nuclear test, in 1953. The element is named after Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, who created the first nuclear reactor.
101 – Mendelevium (Md)
Mendelevium was synthesized in 1955 by Thompson, Ghiorso, Seaborg, Choppin, and Harvey by bombarding einstenium with alpha particles. It is named after Mendeleev, who created the first periodic table of the elements.
102 – Nobelium (No)
The first announcement of the discovery of element 102 was made by the Nobel Institute in Sweden in 1957, who named it after Alfred Nobel. They claimed to have found the element after bombarding curium with carbon, but the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in the United States disputed the claim after being unable to reproduce the same experiment. Meanwhile, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in the Soviet Union also worked on the element, and was able to create it in 1965 by bombarding uranium with neon. They named it joliotium, after Irène Joliot-Curie, daugher of Marie and Pierre Curie and winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The dispute on the name and the discovery lasted decades, until IUPAC finally recognized the Soviet team as the discoverers in the 1990s, while retaining the name nobelium, because by that time it had become entrenched in the literature.
103 – Lawrencium (Lr)
Lawrencium was created in 1961 by Ghiorso, Sikkeland, Larsh, and Latimer by bormbarding californium with boron nuclei. The discovery was disputed by the JINR in the Soviet Union, that in the following years produced more complete results, which were still not definitive. Only in 1971 the American group finally confirmed the element, completing the discovery of lawrencium. Now both groups are credited with the discovery. Lawrencium is named after the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the place where it was discovered, itself named in honor of Ernest Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron.
104 – Rutherfordium (Rf)
The JINR in the Soviet Union reported the discovery of element 104 in 1964, but the result was proven to be incorrect. Further experiments by the same group continued to have disputed results. The element was conclusively synthesized by scientists at the LBNL in the United States in 1969 after bombarding californium with carbon. The Soviet group named the element kurchatovium, after Igor Kurchatov, former head of Soviet nuclear research, while the Americans proposed the name rutherfordium, in honor of Ernest Rutherford, winner of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. After a long dipute, IUPAC gave the name rutherfordium to this element in 1997.
105 – Dubnium (Db)
The Soviet JINR announced the discovery of element 105 in 1968 after bombarding americium with neon, while the American LBNL claimed to have synthesized the element in 1970 after bombarding californium with nitrogen. Once again, a long dispute on the name followed. The Soviets proposed bohrium or nielsbohrium, in honor of Danish physicist Niels Bohr, while the Americans suggested the name hahnium, after German chemist Otto Hahn. The dispute was only solved in 1997, when IUPAC named the element dubnium, after Dubna, the city in Russia where the JINR is located.
106 – Seaborgium (Sg)
Element 106 was identified by the team led by Ghiorso at the LBNL in 1974, after bombarding californium with oxygen. They also found the same result after analyzing an experiment made in 1971, meaning that they had actually produced the element without noticing it. Also in 1974, the team led by Russian scientist of Armenian descent Yuri Oganessian at the JINR reported the discovery of the element. After another long naming dispute, the element was called seaborgium by IUPAC in 1997, after Glenn T. Seaborg. Since Seaborg died in 1999, this was the first element named after a living person.
107 – Bohrium (Bh)
The discovery of element 107 was again disputed by different groups. The Soviet team led by Oganessian reported the discovery in 1976, but the result was deemed as not convincing enough. The definitive discovery was made in 1981 by the team led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, who obtained the element after bombarding bismuth with chromium. The German team proposed the name nielsbohrium, after Niels Bohr, and in 1997 IUPAC officially approved the shorter name bohrium.
108 – Hassium (Hs)
While experiments on element 108 at the Soviet JINR did not provide definitive results, the German team led by Armbruster and Münzenberg was able to synthesize it in 1984, after bombarding lead with iron. Hassium is named after the German state of Hesse, where the element was created, from its Latinized name Hassia.
109 – Meitnerium (Mt)
Meitnerium was synthesized in 1982 by the team led by Armbruster and Münzenberg at the GSI institute in Germany by bombarding bismuth with iron. The element is named after Austrian physicist Lise Meitner, co-discoverer of protactinium.
110 – Darmstadtium (Ds)
Darmstadtium was discovered by a team led by German physicist Sigurd Hofmann after bombarding lead with nickel at the GSI institute in 1994. Previously, both the Soviet JINR and the American LBNL claimed to have synthetized the element, proposing the names becquerelium, after French physicist Henri Becquerel, and hahnium, after German chemist Otto Hahn, respectively. However, their results were not conclusive. In 2003, IUPAC named the element after Darmstadt, Germany, the city where the GSI research center is located.
111 – Roentgenium (Rg)
Shortly after darmstadtium, the same German team also synthesized roentgenium in 1994, by bombarding bismuth with nickel. The element is named after German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, discoverer of X-rays.
112 – Copernicium (Cn)
The same German scientists that discovered darmstadtium and roentgenium also created copernicium in 1996, after bombarding lead with zinc. After a dispute on the results that lasted a few years, the discovery was confirmed, and the element was named after Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus.
113 – Nihonium (Nh)
The discovery of element 113 was made in 2003 by a collaboration of the JINR in Russia and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the United States. They found the element as a product of the decay of moscovium. One year later, the scientists led by Kōsuke Morita at the Riken institute in Japan also announced the detection of element 113, after bombarding bismuth with zinc. After a dispute that lasted several years, the Japanese team was recognized as the first to have undisputably found the element. The name nihonium comes from Nihon (日本), the Japanese name of Japan.
114 – Flerovium (Fl)
Element 114 was identified in 1999 at the JINR in Russia, by a team led by Oganessian. They found the element after bombarding plutonium with calcium, and it might have been produced with the same experiment one year earlier. The element is named after Soviet physicist Georgy Flyorov, founder of the JINR.
115 – Moscovium (Mc)
The team headed by Oganessian at the JINR in Russia produced element 115 in 2003, after bombarding americium with calcium. The element is named after the Moscow Oblast, where the JINR is located.
116 – Livermorium (Lv)
After various unsuccessful attempts and unconfirmed claims, element 116 was synthetized in 2000 by the team led by Oganessian, after bombarding curium with calcium. The element is named after the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which took part in the research that led to the discovery. This institute is located in Livermore, California, United States, a town named after Robert Livermore, an English rancher.
117 – Tennessine (Ts)
The most recently discovered element is tennessine, which was announced in 2010 and created in 2009 by bombarding berkelium with calcium. Several institutes collaborated in the discovery, including the JINR, the LLNL, the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, also in Tennessee. Due to the participation of the latter two institutes, the element was named after the state of Tennessee.
118 – Oganesson (Og)
The heaviest element currently known was discovered in 2002 by the team led by Oganessian, after bombarding californium with calcium. The element is named after Oganessian, who took part in the discovery of several elements. This was the second element named after a living person, after seaborgium, and is now the only one named after a person that is currently alive.