Why are elements named with symbols?

Answer 1

The name of an element depends on who discovered the element and when. Often the names have roots in other languages such as Greek or Latin. Some elements are named after the person who discovered the element or also after other famous scientists to honor that person.

For many elements, the symbol is just the first letter (or first two letters) of the name of the element. Note that the symbol for some elements is taken from the name in another language (Greek and Latin origins quite common) and is not the first two letters of the element's name in English.

See the Web Links for information about each elements' name! Click on any element in the Periodic Table and scroll down to see how and why it was named that way.

Some examples:

hydrogen, symbol H, is from the Greek words hudôr(water) and gennan (generate)

oxygen, symbol, O, is from the Greek words oxus(acid) and gennan (generate)

carbon, symbol C, is from the Latin carbo(coal)

lead, symbol Pb, is for plumbum, which is "lead" in Latin

gold, symbol Au, is for aurum, which is "gold" in Latin

iron, symbol Fe, is for ferrum, which is "iron" in Latin

silver, symbol Ag, is for argentum, which is "silver" in Latin

mercury, symbol Hg, is for hydrargyrum, which is for "liquid silver" in Latin

polonium, symbol Po, is named after Poland, the home country of Marie and Pierre Curie, the people who discovered it

curium, symbol Cm, after Pierre and Marie Curie for their contributions to chemistry (Curium was discovered by G. T. Seaborg)

lawrencium, symbol Lr, after Ernest Lawrence

beryllium, symbol B, after Berylli, California where much research was done on discovering new elements

Answer 2

The names come from the 1st letter. But if another element begins with the same letter, then one element keeps the singular 1st letter. The other element with the same letter adds another letter that is the next or the next syllable, in lower case next to it. Sometimes the element was called something else and is named after its Latin name. Because that clashes with its English name. Hope this helps =]

Answer 3

Generally the first letter is the first letter of the name of the element, though possibly not in English (most commonly Latin, in at least one case German). The second letter (if there is one) is chosen so as not to conflict with an existing symbol. It might be the second letter of the name, it might be the third letter, or any other position (I can't think of a case where the second letter of a two letter symbol does not occur in the element name at all).

Answer 4

• Many element names come from the Latin or ancient word for that element, such as lead and sodium (Pb from plumbum, Na from natrium).
• Others are simply the capitalised first letter of that element's name (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen...).
• Some have an additional letter appended to this, in lowercase, to avoid confusion with prexisting elements (helium, hafnium - He, Hf).
• Several elements have been assigned a standard name, derived from their atomic number (ununoctium, Uuo) until a proper name is given by their discoverer, or while the discoverer is identified.

Answer 5

This is because there are over 115 different elements, so the periodic table was made up so scientists could reference the elements easily. They made symbols or letters in order to make it easier to learn and refer to them.

They are also helpful for children when learning about science and the elements.

Answer 6

The chemical symbols of chemical elements were established by chemists taking into account the first or two letters of the name.

Answer 7

By a semi-tomic molecule in the element of its passing.

Answer 8

they dont ...