List of people whose names are used in chemical element names

Below is the list of people whose names are used in chemical element names. Of the 118 chemical elements, 19 are connected with the names of 20 people. 15 elements were named to honor 16 scientists. Four other elements have indirect connection to the names of non-scientists. On top of this, a 21st person, a 17th scientist, has an implied connection to a 20th element.^[1] Only gadolinium and samarium occur in nature (along with gallium). The rest are synthetic.

Table

The following 19 elements are connected to the names of people. Seaborg and Oganessian were the only two who were alive at the time of being honored with having elements named after them. The four non-scientists in this table are connected with elements that were not named to honor the individual directly, but rather were named for a place or thing which in turn had been named for these people. Samarium was named for the mineral samarskite from which it was isolated. Americium, berkelium and livermorium were named after places that had been named for them. The cities of Berkeley, California and Livermore, California are the locations of the University of California Radiation Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, respectively.

Element				Individual(s)
Z	Name	Symbol	Discovery	Immediate namesake	Name	Specialty	Lifespan	Nationality
62	Samarium	Sm	1879	the mineral samarskite	Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets	Mining engineer	1803–1870	Russian
64	Gadolinium	Gd	1886	the mineral gadolinite	Johan Gadolin	Scientist	1760–1852	Finnish
95	Americium	Am	1944	the continents of the Americas	Amerigo Vespucci	Explorer	1454–1512	Italian
96	Curium	Cm	1944		Marie Curie Pierre Curie	Scientist Scientist	1867–1934 1859–1906	Polish–French French
97	Berkelium	Bk	1949	the city Berkeley, California	George Berkeley	Philosopher	1685–1753	Irish
99	Einsteinium	Es	1952		Albert Einstein	Scientist	1879–1955	German–American
100	Fermium	Fm	1952		Enrico Fermi	Scientist	1901–1954	Italian-American
101	Mendelevium	Md	1955		Dmitri Mendeleev	Scientist	1834–1907	Russian
102	Nobelium	No	1958		Alfred Nobel	Scientist	1833–1896	Swedish
103	Lawrencium	Lr	1961		Ernest Lawrence	Scientist	1901–1958	American
104	Rutherfordium	Rf	1964		Ernest Rutherford	Scientist	1871–1937	New Zealand–British
106	Seaborgium	Sg	1974		Glenn T. Seaborg	Scientist	1912–1999	American
107	Bohrium	Bh	1981		Niels Bohr	Scientist	1885–1962	Danish
109	Meitnerium	Mt	1982		Lise Meitner	Scientist	1878–1968	Austrian-Swedish
111	Roentgenium	Rg	1994		Wilhelm Röntgen	Scientist	1845–1923	German
112	Copernicium	Cn	1996		Nicolaus Copernicus	Scientist	1473–1543	Polish-German
114	Flerovium	Fl	1998		Georgy Flyorov	Scientist	1913–1990	Russian
116	Livermorium	Lv	2000	the city Livermore, California and the Lawrence Livermore Lab^[2]	Robert Livermore	Land owner	1799–1858	American
118	Oganesson	Og	2002		Yuri Oganessian	Scientist	1933–	Armenian-Russian

Other connections

Other element names 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 (more at the article on element naming controversies).

Also, mythological entities have had a significant impact on the naming of elements. Helium, titanium, selenium, palladium, promethium, cerium, europium, mercury, thorium, uranium, neptunium and plutonium are all given names connected to mythological deities. With these five, that connection is indirect:

helium: named for the Sun where it was discovered, being associated with the deity Helios,
Iridium: named for the Greek goddess Iris,
tellurium: named for the Roman goddess of the earth, Tellus Mater,
niobium: named for Niobe, a character of Greek mythology
vanadium, named for Vanadis, another name for Norse goddess Freyja
selenium: named for the Moon being associated with the deity Selene,
palladium: named for the then-recently discovered asteroid Pallas which had been named for the deity Pallas Athena,
cerium: named for the then-recently discovered asteroid Ceres which had been named for the deity Ceres,
europium: named for the continent that had been named after the deity Europa.

Titanium is unique in the list above in that it refers to a group of deities rather than any particular individual. So Helios, Selene, Pallas, and Prometheus actually have two elements named in their honor.

And for elements given a name connected with a group, there is also xenon, named for the Greek word ξένον (xenon), neuter singular form of ξένος (xenos), meaning 'foreign(er)', 'strange(r)', or 'guest'.^[3]^[4] Its discoverer William Ramsay intended this name to be an indication of the qualities of this element in analogy to the generic group of people.

References

↑ Kevin A. Boudreaux. "Derivations of the Names and Symbols of the Elements". Angelo State University.
↑ There is an implied connection between Livermorium and Ernest Lawrence since the element is named for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
↑ Anonymous (1904). Daniel Coit Gilman; Harry Thurston Peck; Frank Moore Colby, eds. The New International Encyclopædia. Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 906.
↑ Staff (1991). The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories. Merriam-Webster, Inc. p. 513. ISBN 0-87779-603-3.

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[1] Kevin A. Boudreaux. "Derivations of the Names and Symbols of the Elements". Angelo State University.

[2] There is an implied connection between Livermorium and Ernest Lawrence since the element is named for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

[3] Anonymous (1904). Daniel Coit Gilman; Harry Thurston Peck; Frank Moore Colby, eds. The New International Encyclopædia. Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 906.

[4] Staff (1991). The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories. Merriam-Webster, Inc. p. 513. ISBN 0-87779-603-3.

List of people whose names are used in chemical element names

Table

Other connections

See also

References