Where does the name erbium come from?

Answer 1

It's named after the small village of Ytterby in Sweden. As are yttrium, ytterbium, and terbium. And kind of holmium (after Stockholm, and Ytterby is in the Stockholm archipelago) and thulium (not Ytterby specifically, but after "Thule", the Greek name for a region ... we're not sure exactly where and apparently neither were the Greeks, but somewhere way up north, which Ytterby fits pretty nicely, if you're feeling a little poetic).

All of these elements were first isolated in ores taken from a mine near Ytterby, which is how a tiny village came to have at least four and possibly as many as six elements named after it. Gadolinium was also first discovered in ore from the same mine, but it's named after Johan Gadolin.