Origin of the name aluminum

Answer 1

Alum (Aluminum potassium sulfate) is a compound known to the ancient Greeks and Romans for its medical and industrial uses. In the 1700's chemists suspected that there was an unknown element hidden in alum.

Then the metal was isolated in the 1800's the name aluminum was proposed (from the Latin

alumen: alum). The name for the metal is aluminum in the United States and aluminum in most of the rest of the world.
Coined by Sir Humphy Davy, British chemist, who named it alumium from alumina (a common mineral) and then aluminum. The latter word stuck in US English, however, shortly after the word was coined, British chemists changed the spelling to aluminium so as to be cognate with other elements such as potassium and sodium. The last name stuck in the British English-speaking world, and is the preferred IUPAC spelling although the US variant is permitted.

Answer 2

The name "aluminum" comes from the mineral alum, from which aluminum compounds were derived. In the early 19th century, the element was originally called "alumium" before being refined to "aluminum" by British chemist Sir Humphry Davy.