The name was eventually simplified to ‘cuprum’, and this eventually morphed into the English version, copper. The island of Cyprus was famous centuries ago for its copper reserves. There’s no shortage of elements named after places, but copper’s name is more subtle than most. Copper’s Latin name was ‘cyprium’, which itself comes from ‘kypros’, the Greek name for Cyprus. The element is known by a myriad of various names in different languages, with some sources suggesting there are over 200 different names for it. Iron’s Latin name, ‘ferrum’, gives it its symbol Fe it simply means ‘iron’ or ‘sword’, and is possibly of Semitic origin. As with sodium, a number of modern languages still refer to potassium as kalium, and the name lends the element its chemical symbol, K. ‘Kalium’ is potassium’s Latin name, and derives from the Arabic ‘al qal īy’, meaning “calcined ashes” (the ashes left over when plant material is burned).

A number of modern languages still call the element natrium instead of sodium, and it’s this name that its chemical symbol, Na, comes from. Its original source is likely to be the Arabic work ‘natrun’. Sodium’s Latin name, ‘natrium’, derives from the Greek ‘nítron’ (a name for sodium carbonate). After the periodic table of rejected element names a few days ago, questions about these elements came up, so here’s a look at their confusing symbols, along with the reasons behind them. Most of the chemical symbols for elements in the periodic table make perfect sense there are a small selection, however, that seem to bear no relation to their element’s name.

Atomic symbol