What does the name of an element tell you?

Answer 1

In most cases, the name of an element tells you very little, if anything at all, about the properties of the element itself, and there is certainly no real systematic method to it.

There are, perhaps, two exceptions. Firstly the halogens, whose names end in "-ine", so an element with this ending will have the properties of a halogen. Secondly, any element whose name ends in "-ium" or "-um" will be a metal.

In almost all cases where elements have names that relate to something of the element's properties, this will seldom be obvious - usually requiring a knowledge of latin, greek and the history of science. Some examples from the early part of the Periodic Table are:

Hydrogen - made from water (From the Greek words hudôr(water) and gennan (generate))

Helium - This was first detected on the sun (From the Greek, helios - sun)

Lithium - first separated from mineral samples (From the Greek, lithos - stone)

Beryllium - This was isolated from the mineral; beryl

Boron - Derived from the Arabic 'buraq' (borax), its principal ore.

Carbon - Found in coal products, hence the name derives from the Latin carbo (coal)

Nitrogen - From the Greek words nitron and genesmeaning nitre (potassium nitrate) forming

Oxygen - Oxides of a number of elements dissolve in water to form acids, hence Greek words oxus (acid) and gennan (generate)

Fluorine - Fluorspar (CaF2), a mineral source of florine was used as a flux, hence the Latin word fluo (flow)

Neon - From the Greek word neos (new) - it was new when it was discovered!

Answer 2

The name of an element tells you its identity and atomic number, which represents the number of protons in the nucleus. It can also provide information about the element's properties, origin, or history.