ElementsWhy is sodium Na? Symbols that do not match the name
Most element symbols are easy to guess: H for hydrogen, Ca for calcium. Eleven are not. Their symbols come from older Latin names, or in one case a German name, that scientists across Europe already shared when symbols were fixed in the early 1800s.
| Symbol | English name | Older name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Na | Sodium | natrium | from natron, a natural soda |
| K | Potassium | kalium | from an Arabic word for plant ashes |
| Fe | Iron | ferrum | Latin for iron |
| Cu | Copper | cuprum | the metal of Cyprus |
| Ag | Silver | argentum | Latin for silver, meaning bright or white |
| Sn | Tin | stannum | Latin for tin |
| Sb | Antimony | stibium | Latin name of its black mineral |
| W | Tungsten | wolfram | a German name, from the mineral wolframite |
| Au | Gold | aurum | Latin for gold |
| Hg | Mercury | hydrargyrum | Latinised Greek for liquid silver |
| Pb | Lead | plumbum | Latin for lead, the root of the word plumber |
Who chose the symbols?
The Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius proposed the letter system in 1813 and 1814. Before that, chemists drew small pictures and circles, which were hard to print and to remember. Berzelius took one or two letters from each element's Latin name, because Latin was the common language of science.
Ways to remember them
- Fe: think of "ferrous" metals and "ferry" boats made of iron.
- Au: an "aura" is a golden glow.
- Ag: Argentina was named after silver.
- Pb: a plumber once worked with lead pipes.
- Na and K: learn them as a pair. Both are soft metals of group 1.
- Hg: "hydr" as in water, a liquid metal.
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