Why is the symbol for sodium Na instead of S?

Answer 1

Certain chemical symbols on the Periodic Table were named not only after the name of the element but also after the people who discovered them. Some of their chemical symbols were even taken from their Latin names.

In sodium's case it was taken from its original Latin name, Natrium, as is Na.

Answer 2

Many of the elements have symbols that don't make sense to their name but that's because these elements were one of the very first to be discovered therefore their names are not in our language. Na derives from the latin word natrium since sodium was not recently found(found long time ago) they stuck to its old name and put the symbol for its latin name

2nd answer:

Sodium was orginally named, 'Natron' by Arabic scientists, who were the world's best hundreds of years ago. The Romans adopted that word as "Natrium" in their Latin language.

Answer 3

It's name in lots of languages is natrium, e.g. in German.

Both names are 19th century Latin and have been used in English. Also French use sodium.

Sodium is related to soda, and natrium to natron, both being natural Na containing compounds known long before the isolation of Na in 1807.

"Natron" is either a development of Greek "nitron", or Arabic "natrun", both from Egyptian "netjeri".

Answer 4

The symbol for sodium is Na because it comes from the Latin word "natrium." The symbol S is already assigned to sulfur in the periodic table.