Where do element names come from?

H Hydrogen A property · Greek Hydrogen comes from the Greek words hydro, 'water', and genes, 'forming', so it means 'water-former'. Antoine Lavoisier coined the name in French (hydrogène) in the 1780s after showing that burning hydrogen produces water. He Helium Astronomy · Greek Helium is named after helios, the Greek word for the Sun. Astronomers first detected it in 1868 as an unexplained yellow line in sunlight, decades before anyone found the gas on Earth. Li Lithium A mineral · Greek Lithium comes from the Greek lithos, meaning 'stone'. Jöns Jacob Berzelius chose the name to reflect its discovery in a solid mineral, petalite, whereas potassium had been found in plant ashes. Be Beryllium A mineral · Greek Beryllium is named after beryl, the mineral in which it was discovered, from the Greek beryllos. It was long called glucinium, from the Greek glykys, 'sweet', because some of its compounds taste sweet. B Boron A mineral · Arabic Boron is named after borax, a boron-rich mineral, with an ending borrowed from carbon, an element it resembles. Borax reached English through Medieval Latin from the Arabic buraq, which in turn comes from Persian. C Carbon Other · Latin Carbon comes from the Latin carbo, meaning 'charcoal' or 'coal', the form of the element people knew best. French chemists, including Antoine Lavoisier, introduced the name carbone in 1787. N Nitrogen A mineral · Greek Nitrogen means 'niter-former', from niter (saltpeter) and the Greek genes, 'forming', because the gas is part of niter. Jean-Antoine Chaptal coined the name in 1790; niter itself goes back to the Greek nitron. O Oxygen A property · Greek Oxygen comes from the Greek oxys, 'sharp' or 'acid', and genes, 'forming', so it means 'acid-former'. Antoine Lavoisier chose the name because he mistakenly believed that all acids contain oxygen. F Fluorine A mineral · Latin Fluorine is named after the mineral fluorite, or fluorspar, from the Latin fluere, 'to flow'. Metalworkers added fluorite to ores as a flux because it helps the molten material flow more easily. Ne Neon A property · Greek Neon comes from the Greek neos, meaning 'new'. William Ramsay and Morris Travers chose the name in 1898 for the new gas they found while separating the components of liquefied air. Na Sodium Other · English Humphry Davy named sodium in 1807 after soda (caustic soda), the compound he isolated it from. Its symbol, Na, comes from the New Latin natrium, based on natron, a natural soda mineral known since ancient times. Mg Magnesium A place · Greek Magnesium is named after magnesia, a white magnesium compound whose name comes from Magnesia, a district of Thessaly in Greece. Several minerals from that region were known by the name magnesia. Al Aluminum A mineral · Latin Aluminum comes from alum, from the Latin alumen, a name for salts used since ancient times to fix dyes. Humphry Davy proposed alumium and then aluminum; the spelling aluminium later became standard in Britain and much of the world. Si Silicon A mineral · Latin Silicon comes from the Latin silex (genitive silicis), meaning 'flint', a hard stone made largely of silica. Thomas Thomson gave it the -on ending in 1817 to match carbon and boron, nonmetals it resembles. P Phosphorus A property · Greek Phosphorus comes from the Greek phosphoros, meaning 'light-bearer', from phos, 'light', and pherein, 'to carry'. The name refers to the eerie glow that white phosphorus gives off in the dark as it reacts with air. S Sulfur Other · Latin Sulfur comes from the Latin sulfur (also spelled sulphur), the Romans' name for this yellow substance; its deeper origin is unknown. In older English it was called brimstone, meaning 'burning stone'. Cl Chlorine A property · Greek Chlorine comes from the Greek chloros, meaning 'pale green' or 'yellowish green', the color of the gas. Humphry Davy proposed the name in 1810 after proving that the gas is an element. Ar Argon A property · Greek Argon comes from the Greek argos, meaning 'idle' or 'lazy'. Its discoverers chose the name in 1894 because the gas refused to react with any of the substances they tried. K Potassium Other · English Humphry Davy named potassium in 1807 after potash, literally 'pot ash', made by soaking plant ashes and boiling down the liquid in pots. The symbol K comes from the New Latin kalium, from the Arabic qali, 'plant ashes'. Ca Calcium A mineral · Latin Calcium comes from the Latin calx (genitive calcis), meaning 'lime', the calcium compound made by heating limestone. Humphry Davy named the metal in 1808 after isolating it from lime. Sc Scandium A place · Latin Scandium is named after Scandinavia, from its Latin name Scandia. Lars Fredrik Nilson chose the name in 1879 because he discovered the element in rare minerals from Scandinavia. Ti Titanium Mythology · Greek Titanium is named after the Titans, the powerful giants of Greek mythology who were children of Uranus and Gaia. Martin Heinrich Klaproth chose the name in 1795, echoing uranium, which he had named after the planet Uranus. V Vanadium Mythology · Old Norse Vanadium is named after Vanadís, an Old Norse name for Freyja, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty. Nils Gabriel Sefström chose it in 1830 because the element forms compounds in many beautiful colors. Cr Chromium A property · Greek Chromium comes from the Greek chroma, meaning 'color'. Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin chose the name in 1797 because chromium compounds come in a wide range of vivid colors, from red and orange to green. Mn Manganese A mineral · Latin Manganese takes its name from 'black magnesia', an old term for the mineral pyrolusite; magnesia itself refers to the Magnesia region of Greece. In Italian, the Medieval Latin magnesia was altered to manganese. Fe Iron Other · Old English Iron comes from the Old English iren (also isern), a word shared with other Germanic languages. Its symbol, Fe, comes from ferrum, the Latin word for iron, which also gives us words such as ferrous. Co Cobalt Mythology · German Cobalt comes from the German Kobold, meaning 'goblin'. Miners blamed mischievous goblins for ores that looked valuable but yielded no useful metal and gave off poisonous arsenic fumes when smelted. Ni Nickel Mythology · German Nickel is a shortened form of the German Kupfernickel, roughly 'copper demon', a miners' name for an ore that looked like copper ore but yielded no copper. Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, who identified the metal in 1751, shortened the name. Cu Copper A place · Latin Copper comes from the Late Latin cuprum, from the Latin aes Cyprium, 'metal of Cyprus', the Mediterranean island famous for its copper mines in ancient times. The symbol Cu comes from cuprum. Zn Zinc Other · German Zinc comes from the German Zink, a name used by the physician Paracelsus in the 1500s. Its origin is uncertain; one popular explanation links it to Zinke, 'prong' or 'spike', describing the jagged crystals of the metal. Ga Gallium A place · Latin Gallium comes from Gallia, the Latin name for France. Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered it in 1875 and named it after his homeland, though some suspected a pun on his own name, as gallus means 'rooster' (le coq). Ge Germanium A place · Latin Germanium comes from Germania, the Latin name for Germany. Clemens Winkler, who discovered the element in 1886, named it in honor of his home country. As Arsenic A mineral · Greek Arsenic comes from the Greek arsenikon, a name for the yellow mineral orpiment, an arsenic sulfide used as a pigment. The Greek word ultimately comes from a Persian word meaning 'golden'. Se Selenium Astronomy · Greek Selenium comes from the Greek selene, meaning 'Moon'. Jöns Jacob Berzelius named it in 1817 because it closely resembled tellurium, which had been named after the Earth (Latin tellus). Br Bromine A property · Greek Bromine comes from the Greek bromos, meaning 'stench'. Antoine-Jérôme Balard discovered the element in 1826, and the name was chosen for the sharp, unpleasant smell of its reddish-brown vapor. Kr Krypton A property · Greek Krypton comes from the Greek kryptos, meaning 'hidden'. William Ramsay and Morris Travers named it in 1898 because the gas had lain hidden in the air, in tiny amounts, until they separated it from liquefied air. Rb Rubidium A property · Latin Rubidium comes from the Latin rubidus, meaning 'deep red'. Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff discovered it in 1861 with a spectroscope and named it after the bright red lines in its spectrum. Sr Strontium A place · English Strontium is named after Strontian, a village in the Scottish Highlands. A new mineral from its lead mines, later called strontianite, led to the discovery of the element in the 1790s. Y Yttrium A place · Swedish Yttrium is named after Ytterby, a village near Stockholm in Sweden. A quarry there yielded the mineral in which it was found, and three more elements, terbium, erbium and ytterbium, were also named after the village. Zr Zirconium A mineral · Persian Zirconium is named after zircon, the gemstone mineral in which it was discovered in 1789. The word zircon is thought to come from the Persian zargun, meaning 'gold-colored', after the color of some stones. Nb Niobium Mythology · Greek Niobium is named after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology, because the element is so similar to tantalum. Heinrich Rose chose the name in 1844; it was long called columbium in the United States. Mo Molybdenum A mineral · Greek Molybdenum comes from the Greek molybdos, meaning 'lead'. Its main ore, molybdenite, was long confused with lead ores and with graphite, and all of these soft, dark minerals were called by similar names. Tc Technetium A property · Greek Technetium comes from the Greek technetos, meaning 'artificial'. Discovered in 1937 in metal that had been bombarded in a particle accelerator, it was the first element to be produced artificially. Ru Ruthenium A place · Latin Ruthenium comes from Ruthenia, a Latin name for Russia. Karl Klaus, who isolated the element at Kazan University in 1844, named it in honor of the country where he lived and worked. Rh Rhodium A property · Greek Rhodium comes from the Greek rhodon, meaning 'rose'. William Hyde Wollaston chose the name in the early 1800s because the salts of the new metal he isolated had a rosy red color. Pd Palladium Astronomy · Greek Palladium is named after the asteroid Pallas, discovered in 1802, shortly before William Hyde Wollaston found the element. The asteroid itself was named after Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Ag Silver Other · Old English Silver comes from the Old English seolfor, a word shared with other Germanic languages whose earlier origin is unclear. The symbol Ag comes from the Latin argentum, from an ancient root meaning 'shining' or 'white'. Cd Cadmium A mineral · Greek Cadmium comes from the Latin cadmia, from the Greek kadmeia, an old name for calamine, a zinc ore. Friedrich Stromeyer discovered the element in 1817 as an impurity in a zinc compound. In Indium A property · Latin Indium is named after indigo, the deep blue dye, from the Latin indicum. Ferdinand Reich and Hieronymus Richter discovered it in 1863 by spotting a bright indigo-blue line in its spectrum. Sn Tin Other · Old English Tin comes from the Old English tin, a word found in many Germanic languages whose earlier origin is unknown. Its symbol, Sn, comes from stannum, the Latin word for tin. Sb Antimony Other · Latin Antimony comes from the Medieval Latin antimonium, a word of uncertain origin used by alchemists. The symbol Sb comes from the Latin stibium, the name for stibnite, an antimony mineral used in ancient times as black eye makeup. Te Tellurium Astronomy · Latin Tellurium comes from the Latin tellus, meaning 'earth'. Martin Heinrich Klaproth chose the name in 1798 after confirming the element, which Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein had discovered in a gold ore in 1782. I Iodine A property · Greek Iodine comes from the Greek iodes, meaning 'violet-colored'. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac proposed the name in 1813 after the striking violet vapor that rises when the element is heated. Xe Xenon A property · Greek Xenon comes from the Greek xenos, meaning 'stranger' or 'foreigner'. William Ramsay and Morris Travers named it in 1898; it was the last of three new gases they separated from liquefied air that year. Cs Cesium A property · Latin Cesium comes from the Latin caesius, meaning 'bluish gray' or 'sky blue'. Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff discovered it in 1860 in mineral water and named it after the two bright blue lines in its spectrum. Ba Barium A mineral · Greek Barium comes from baryta, an old name for barium oxide, from the Greek barys, meaning 'heavy'. Its common mineral, baryte (barite), is unusually dense, and Humphry Davy named the metal in 1808 after isolating it. La Lanthanum A property · Greek Lanthanum comes from the Greek lanthanein, meaning 'to lie hidden'. Carl Gustaf Mosander chose the name in 1839 because the element had been hiding in cerium compounds, unnoticed by earlier chemists. Ce Cerium Astronomy · Latin Cerium is named after Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt discovered in 1801, two years before the element. Ceres itself honors the Roman goddess of agriculture. Pr Praseodymium A property · Greek Praseodymium comes from the Greek prasios, 'leek green', and didymos, 'twin'. Carl Auer von Welsbach split didymium, the so-called twin of lanthanum, into two elements in 1885 and named this one for its green salts. Nd Neodymium A property · Greek Neodymium comes from the Greek neos, 'new', and didymos, 'twin', so it means 'new twin'. It was one of two elements that Carl Auer von Welsbach separated in 1885 from didymium, which had been mistaken for a single element. Pm Promethium Mythology · Greek Promethium is named after Prometheus, the Titan in Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. Grace Mary Coryell, wife of one of its discoverers, suggested the name as a symbol of both human daring and its dangers. Sm Samarium A mineral · Russian Samarium is named after the mineral samarskite, in which it was found. The mineral honors Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, a Russian mining official, which makes samarium the first element named, indirectly, after a person. Eu Europium A place · Latin Europium is named after the continent of Europe. French chemist Eugène-Anatole Demarçay, who identified the element in 1901 after years of careful separation work, chose the name. Gd Gadolinium A mineral · Finnish Gadolinium is named after the mineral gadolinite, which honors Johan Gadolin, the Finnish chemist who discovered yttrium in it in 1794. Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac first detected gadolinium in 1880. Tb Terbium A place · Swedish Terbium is named after Ytterby, a village near Stockholm in Sweden whose quarry produced the mineral it came from. Carl Gustaf Mosander discovered it in 1843 and built its name from part of the village's name. Dy Dysprosium A property · Greek Dysprosium comes from the Greek dysprositos, meaning 'hard to get at'. Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran chose the name in 1886 after many painstaking attempts to separate the element from holmium. Ho Holmium A place · Latin Holmium comes from Holmia, the Latin name for Stockholm, the Swedish capital. Per Teodor Cleve, a Stockholm native who identified the element in 1879, named it after his home city. Er Erbium A place · Swedish Erbium is named after Ytterby, the Swedish village near Stockholm whose quarry yielded so many new elements. Carl Gustaf Mosander discovered erbium in 1843, taking its name from a piece of the village name. Tm Thulium A place · Latin Thulium is named after Thule, the ancient Greek and Roman name for a mysterious land in the far north, often identified with Scandinavia. Per Teodor Cleve discovered and named the element in 1879. Yb Ytterbium A place · Swedish Ytterbium is named after Ytterby, a Swedish village near Stockholm with a famous quarry. Four elements are named after this one village: yttrium, terbium, erbium and ytterbium, the last identified by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in 1878. Lu Lutetium A place · Latin Lutetium comes from Lutetia, the Latin name of the ancient town that became Paris. French chemist Georges Urbain, who discovered the element in 1907, named it after his home city. Hf Hafnium A place · Latin Hafnium comes from Hafnia, the Latin name for Copenhagen, Denmark. Dirk Coster and George de Hevesy discovered the element there in 1923, at the institute led by Niels Bohr. Ta Tantalum Mythology · Greek Tantalum is named after Tantalus, a king in Greek mythology punished by standing in water he could never drink. Anders Gustaf Ekeberg chose the name in 1802 because the element's oxide could not absorb acid even when soaked in it. W Tungsten A mineral · Swedish Tungsten comes from the Swedish tung sten, meaning 'heavy stone', the old name of the dense mineral now called scheelite. Its symbol, W, comes from wolfram, the German name for the element and its ore, wolframite. Re Rhenium A place · Latin Rhenium comes from Rhenus, the Latin name for the Rhine River. German chemists Walter Noddack, Ida Tacke and Otto Berg discovered it in 1925 and named it after this river in their homeland. Os Osmium A property · Greek Osmium comes from the Greek osme, meaning 'smell'. Smithson Tennant named it in 1803 because of the sharp, unpleasant smell of osmium tetroxide, a volatile compound that forms when the metal reacts with air. Ir Iridium A property · Greek Iridium comes from the Greek iris, meaning 'rainbow', which was also the name of the Greek goddess of the rainbow. Smithson Tennant chose it in 1803 because the salts of the metal display a wide range of colors. Pt Platinum A property · Spanish Platinum comes from the Spanish platina, meaning 'little silver', a diminutive of plata, 'silver'. Spanish colonists in South America used the name for the silvery grains of metal they found mixed with gold. Au Gold A property · Old English Gold comes from the Old English gold, from an ancient root meaning 'yellow' or 'bright'. Its symbol, Au, comes from the Latin aurum, the Roman word for gold. Hg Mercury Astronomy · Latin Mercury is named after the planet Mercury, which alchemists linked with this fast-flowing liquid metal; the planet honors the swift messenger god of Roman mythology. The symbol Hg comes from the Latin hydrargyrum, from the Greek for 'water silver'. Tl Thallium A property · Greek Thallium comes from the Greek thallos, meaning 'green shoot' or 'twig'. William Crookes discovered it in 1861 and named it after the brilliant green line in its spectrum, the color of fresh spring growth. Pb Lead Other · Old English Lead comes from the Old English lead, a word related to the Dutch lood. Its symbol, Pb, comes from the Latin plumbum, which also gives us the words plumbing and plumber, since Roman water pipes were made of lead. Bi Bismuth Other · German Bismuth comes from the German Wismut, an old miners' word of uncertain origin; one suggestion is weiße Masse, 'white mass'. In the 1500s the word was Latinized as bisemutum, which gave the modern name. Po Polonium A place · Latin Polonium comes from Polonia, the Latin name for Poland. Marie and Pierre Curie discovered it in 1898 and named it after Marie's homeland, then divided among Russia, Prussia and Austria, to draw attention to its plight. At Astatine A property · Greek Astatine comes from the Greek astatos, meaning 'unstable'. The scientists who first made it in 1940 chose the name because every form of the element is radioactive and decays quickly. Rn Radon Other · Latin Radon gets its name from radium, the element whose radioactive decay produces it, with the ending -on borrowed from other noble gases such as argon and neon. Radium itself comes from the Latin radius, 'ray'. Fr Francium A place · French Francium is named after France. Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element in 1939 while working at the Curie Institute in Paris, chose the name to honor her home country. Ra Radium A property · Latin Radium comes from the Latin radius, meaning 'ray'. Marie and Pierre Curie named it in 1898 for the intense radiation it gives off, which can make its compounds glow faintly in the dark. Ac Actinium A property · Greek Actinium comes from the Greek aktis (genitive aktinos), meaning 'ray' or 'beam'. André-Louis Debierne named it in 1899 for its radioactivity, the rays given off as its atoms decay. Th Thorium Mythology · Old Norse Thorium is named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Jöns Jacob Berzelius chose the name in 1829 when he discovered the element in a black mineral from Norway, later named thorite. Pa Protactinium Other · Greek Protactinium comes from the Greek protos, 'first', combined with actinium, because it decays into actinium and so comes before it in the decay chain. The original form, protoactinium, was shortened in 1949. U Uranium Astronomy · Greek Uranium is named after the planet Uranus, discovered by William Herschel in 1781. Martin Heinrich Klaproth named the element in 1789; the planet itself honors Uranus, the Greek god of the sky. Np Neptunium Astronomy · Latin Neptunium is named after the planet Neptune. Discovered in 1940, it was the first element beyond uranium, so it was named after the next planet out from Uranus, which honors the Roman god of the sea. Pu Plutonium Astronomy · Latin Plutonium is named after Pluto, then considered the next planet beyond Neptune, following the pattern of uranium and neptunium. Pluto, now classed as a dwarf planet, is named after the Roman god of the underworld. Am Americium A place · English Americium is named after the Americas, where it was first made in 1944. Its discoverers chose the name by analogy with europium, the element directly above it in the periodic table, which is named after Europe. Cm Curium A person · French Curium honors Marie and Pierre Curie, pioneers in the study of radioactivity. The name follows the example of gadolinium, the element above it in the periodic table, which was named in honor of the chemist Johan Gadolin. Bk Berkelium A place · English Berkelium is named after the city of Berkeley, California, home of the University of California laboratory where it was first made in 1949. The name parallels terbium, the element above it, which is named after a Swedish village. Cf Californium A place · English Californium is named after the state of California and the University of California, where scientists working at Berkeley first produced the element in 1950 by bombarding curium with helium nuclei. Es Einsteinium A person · German Einsteinium honors Albert Einstein, the physicist famous for the theory of relativity. The element was first found in 1952 in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb test, and its discovery and name were made public only in 1955, the year Einstein died. Fm Fermium A person · Italian Fermium honors Enrico Fermi, the Italian-born physicist who built the first nuclear reactor. Like einsteinium, it was discovered in the debris of the 1952 hydrogen bomb test, though the finding was kept secret for several years. Md Mendelevium A person · Russian Mendelevium honors Dmitri Mendeleev, the Russian chemist who published the first widely recognized periodic table in 1869 and used it to predict elements that had not yet been discovered. No Nobelium A person · Swedish Nobelium honors Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist who invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prizes. The name was proposed in 1957 by a team at the Nobel Institute of Physics in Stockholm, though their discovery claim was not confirmed. Lr Lawrencium A person · English Lawrencium honors Ernest O. Lawrence, the American physicist who invented the cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator. It was first made in 1961 at the Berkeley laboratory he founded, which now bears his name. Rf Rutherfordium A person · English Rutherfordium honors Ernest Rutherford, the New Zealand-born physicist who discovered the atomic nucleus and is often called the father of nuclear physics. The name was officially approved in 1997 after a long naming dispute. Db Dubnium A place · Russian Dubnium is named after Dubna, a town near Moscow, Russia, home of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, where some of the earliest work on this element was carried out. Sg Seaborgium A person · English Seaborgium honors Glenn T. Seaborg, the American chemist who helped discover plutonium and several other heavy elements. Unusually, the name was chosen while Seaborg was still alive. Bh Bohrium A person · Danish Bohrium honors Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist whose model of the atom, with electrons in fixed energy levels, helped lay the foundations of quantum theory. The element was first made in 1981 in Darmstadt, Germany. Hs Hassium A place · Latin Hassium comes from Hassia, the Latin name for the German state of Hesse. The element was first made in 1984 at the GSI heavy-ion research center in Darmstadt, which lies in Hesse. Mt Meitnerium A person · German Meitnerium honors Lise Meitner, the Austrian-born physicist who, with Otto Frisch, gave the first explanation of nuclear fission. She was left out of the Nobel Prize awarded to Otto Hahn for the discovery of fission. Ds Darmstadtium A place · German Darmstadtium is named after Darmstadt, Germany, the city where scientists at the GSI research center first created the element in 1994 by fusing lead and nickel nuclei. Rg Roentgenium A person · German Roentgenium honors Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the German physicist who discovered X-rays in 1895 and received the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. The element was first made in 1994 in Darmstadt. Cn Copernicium A person · Latin Copernicium honors Nicolaus Copernicus, the Renaissance astronomer who argued that Earth and the other planets orbit the Sun. The name was officially adopted on February 19, 2010, the anniversary of his birth. Nh Nihonium A place · Japanese Nihonium comes from Nihon, one of the Japanese names for Japan, often translated as 'land of the rising sun'. Scientists at the RIKEN institute made it, the first element discovered in an Asian country. Fl Flerovium A person · Russian Flerovium honors the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Russia, where it was first made, and the laboratory's founder, Soviet physicist Georgy Flerov, known for his work on nuclear fission. Mc Moscovium A place · Russian Moscovium is named after the Moscow region of Russia, where the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna is located. Russian and American scientists working together first produced the element in 2003. Lv Livermorium A place · English Livermorium honors Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, whose scientists helped discover it with colleagues in Dubna, Russia. The city of Livermore is named after Robert Livermore, an English-born rancher. Ts Tennessine A place · English Tennessine is named after the US state of Tennessee, home of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee, all of which contributed to its discovery. The -ine ending matches halogens such as chlorine. Og Oganesson A person · Armenian Oganesson honors Yuri Oganessian, the Russian-Armenian physicist who led the discovery of several of the heaviest elements. Its -on ending matches the other noble gases, and like seaborgium it was named after a living scientist.