Throughout the
history of chemistry, many chemical elements have been discovered. In the 19th century,
Dmitri Mendeleev formulated the
periodic table, a table of elements which describes their structure. Because elements have been discovered at various times and places, from antiquity through the present day, their names have derived from several languages and cultures.
Named after places Of the 118 known elements, 41 have names associated with, or specifically named after, places around the world or among astronomical objects. Of these, 32 have names tied to the places on Earth, and the other nine are named after
Solar System objects;
helium and
selenium after the
Sun and
Moon;
mercury (indirectly),
tellurium,
uranium and
neptunium after the planets
Mercury,
Earth,
Uranus and
Neptune;
plutonium and
cerium after the dwarf planets
Pluto and
Ceres, both considered planets when the elements were named; and
palladium after the asteroid
Pallas. Only
Glenn T. Seaborg and
Yuri Oganessian were honoured during their lifetime by having elements named after them, and Oganessian is the only one still living. Elements named after four non-scientists in this table were actually named after a place or thing which in turn had been named after these people.
Samarium was named from the mineral from which it was isolated,
samarskite, which was named after
Vassili Samarsky-Bykhovets.
Berkelium and
livermorium were named after the California cities
Berkeley and
Livermore, the locations of the
Lawrence Berkeley and
Lawrence Livermore national laboratories; the cities were named after
George Berkeley and
Robert Livermore.
Americium was named after America, which was named after
Amerigo Vespucci.
Named after mythological entities Also, mythological entities have had a significant impact on the naming of elements, directly or indirectly.
Cerium,
europium,
helium,
iridium,
mercury,
neptunium,
niobium,
palladium,
plutonium,
promethium,
selenium,
tantalum,
titanium,
thorium,
uranium and
vanadium are all connected to mythological deities.
Named after minerals Elements may also have been named after the minerals in which they were discovered. For example, beryllium is named after
beryl.
Controversies and failed proposals Other element names given after people have been proposed but failed to gain official international recognition. These include columbium (Cb), hahnium (Ha), joliotium (Jl), and kurchatovium (Ku), names connected to
Christopher Columbus,
Otto Hahn,
Irène Joliot-Curie, and
Igor Kurchatov; and also cassiopeium (Cp), a name coming from the constellation
Cassiopeia and is hence indirectly connected to the mythological
Cassiopeia. ==Current naming practices and procedures==