List of chemical element name etymologies

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.

[1] Nineteen elements are connected with the names of twenty people (as curium honours both Marie and Pierre Curie).

Cerium, europium, helium, iridium, mercury, neptunium, niobium, palladium, plutonium, promethium, selenium, tantalum, titanium, thorium, uranium and vanadium and all connected to mythological deities.

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.