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| Symbols of Elements |
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| Even before knowing what elements were, man started extracting them from their ores. A few metals like gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, tin and mercury were used even in the 1st century A.D. A mention of them is made in the 'Charaka Samhita' - a medical treatise of ancient India. These metals were associated with a particular heavenly body. |
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| Alchemists are the forerunners to the modern day chemists. Their quest was to convert base metals into gold using 'philosophers stone' an illusionary substance. Though unsuccessful on this front, they succeeded in separating and identifying arsenic, antimony and bismuth. |
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 Hydrogen was named by Lavoisier using the Greek words 'Hydro' ie., water and 'Genes' meaning forming. |
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 Chlorine has its origin from Greek word - 'Chloros' - meaning greenish yellow, 'Bromos' means stench in Greek and 'Iodes' in Greek means violet. |
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 The word nickel has originated from a German word meaning 'Saton' or 'Old nick'. Cobalt comes from a German word - 'Globlin' or 'Evil Spirit'. |
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 Argon from Greek meaning 'Inactive'. |
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 Gold is an Anglo-Saxon word - 'Aurum'. |
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| Elements named after places |
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| Scandium (Sc) - found in Scandinavia |
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| Thulium (Tm) - named after Thule the earlier name of Scandinavia. |
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| Europium (Eu) - after the continent Europe. |
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| Polonium (Po) - named after Curies after their home town. |
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| Named after planets |
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| Selenium (Se) - 'Seles' Greek name for the moon |
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| Plutonium (Pu) - Neptunium (Np) Uranium (U) |
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| Mercury was named after a planet but derives its symbol Hg from the Latin word 'Hydragyrum' meaning liquid silver. |
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| Named after scientists |
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| Curium (Cm) after Pierre and Marie Curie |
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| Fermium (Fm) after Enrico Fermi |
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| Einsteinium (Es) after Albert Einstein |
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| Mendelevium (Md) after Dimitri Mendeleev |
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| A shorthand representation of an element is called a symbol. The symbol of any element is the first letter or the first letter and another letter of its English name or Latin name in English alphabets. |
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 The first letter is written in capital and the second letter in small. |
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 The second letter can be any letter in the name of the element, which is internationally accepted. |
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| Symbols of common metals |
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| Symbols of chemically active non-metals |
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| Symbols of chemical inactive non-metals of noble gases |
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