Lesson 1-8

Elemental Names and Symbols

     As of this date, there are about 112 known elements.   Each element is made up of its own type of atom.  Not all atoms of an element are identical, but each atom of an element has the same number of protons.  Protons are subatomic particles found in the nucleus of an atom, and the number of protons in an atom is called the atomic number.  Each element has its own unique atomic number, as well as its own name and symbol.

    The names of the elements have various origins.  Some are named, in Greek or Latin, for properties that they possess.   Some are named in honor of scientists who made important discoveries in the field of Chemistry.  Others are named for the place where they were first discovered.  Some are even named after gods of mythology.

    Since there are only 26 letters in our alphabet, and over 100 elements, combinations of letters had to be used in order to give each element its own unique symbol.  Each symbol is made up of one capital letter, which may be followed by 0-2 lower case letters.  Some elemental symbols, like oxygen with the symbol "O", will be easy for you to remember.  Other elemental symbols, like sodium with the symbol "Na", will be a bit harder to commit to memory.  Unfortunately for us, some symbols (like Na) are derived from the Latin name for the element.

    Chemistry students are often required to memorize some, or all, of the elemental symbols.  There is an important reason for this, and it will save you and your teacher a great deal of class time in the future.   Check with your teacher to see which elemental symbols you will need to memorize for an upcoming quiz.  You can print out and use the chart below, but remember to check with your teacher to see if it is complete, or if there are other symbols that you need to know.  Also, as you go about studying the symbols, keep in mind that the case of the letter is very important.

Now, be sure to check out the worksheets and the online quizzes!

Table 1-8a
Select Elements and Their Symbols

Please forward all questions, comments and criticisms to Gregory L. Curran.
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Last Modified February 07, 2008