Naming tradition of chemicals

You may have observed that different substances have different names in different languages. For example, iron is called loha in Hindi while copper is called tamba. Water also has several names like pani, jal, neer, etc.

Having so many names for substances could create problems in a field like chemistry where work is conducted throughout the world. How would scientists from different countries who speak different languages communicate with each other? There should be some way in which they can understand each other. To make this possible, we must have universally accepted names for different substances. That is, a scientist from any part of the world should be able to recognise the substance by its name.

Many elements like iron, gold, silver, mercury, copper and zinc have been known from ancient times. But many other elements were discovered in more recent times.

When a new element is discovered, the discoverer gives it a name. That becomes the name of the element. When modern chemistry was being developed, the language most commonly used among scientists was Latin, the language of ancient Rome. Thus the names of many elements were based on Latin words. Take the example of hydrogen. One of the properties of this gas is that it combines with oxygen to form water. The Latin name for water is ‘hydro’. So this gas was named hydrogen, which means, “gas that makes water”.

Another similar case is that of helium. This gas was first discovered in the Sun, not on Earth. The Greek name for sun is ‘helios’, so the gas was named helium.

Many elements were named after the places in which they were discovered. Some examples are scandinavium and californium. Some elements were named to honour well known scientists. One example is mendelium, named after Gregor Mendel. The story of oxygen is very interesting. At one time people believed that any compound that contained oxygen would be acidic in nature. The Latin word for acid is ‘oxy’. Hence the gas was called oxygen, meaning “gas that forms acid”. It was later discovered that acidic property was not related to oxygen. However, by then the name had come into common use so it was not changed. After all, what’s there in a name!

The names of many elements are their English names as well.

For example, the chemical names aluminium, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are also the English names of these elements. However, this is not always the case. The chemical name ferrum is called iron in English while cuprum is copper.

The next step in naming elements was to write them in an abbreviated form. Thus, carbon was given the symbol of a capital C. Generally, the first letter of the name of the element became the symbol of that element. For example: H for hydrogen, O for oxygen

and N for nitrogen. But this caused a problem. There are many elements whose names

begin with the same alphabet. Examples include copper, carbon, calcium and chlorine, which all begin with the letter C.

Can you suggest a way in which this problem can be solved? Should the names of these elements be changed? 

No, the names of the elements were not changed. In these cases, instead of using only the first letter of the name, the second or any other letter were added with it. So while carbon became C, cuprium became Cu, calcium became Ca and chlorine became Cl.

Here, too, it is necessary to remember one thing. When two letters are used to form the symbol of an element, the first letter is written in capitals while the next letter is in the lower case. So the symbol for calcium would have a capital ‘C’ and a lower case ‘a’ to form Ca.

So we have to learn these formulae by rote?
No, no, don’t learn them by rote; you will be able to remember them as you keep on using them.