Question: Which Elements Are Named After People?
Answer: There are 13 elements named after people, although only 12 of the names are formally accepted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
- bohrium (Bh, 107) – Niels Bohr
- curium (Cm, 96) – Pierre and Marie Curie
- einsteinium (Es, 99) – Albert Einstein
- fermium (Fm, 100) – Enrico Fermi
- gallium (Ga, 31) – both named after Gallia (Latin for France) and its discoverer, Lecoq de Boisbaudran (le coq, the French word for 'rooster' translates to gallus in Latin)
- hahnium (105) – Otto Hahn (Dubnium, named for Dubna in Russia, is the IUPAC-accepted name for element 105)
- lawrencium (Lr, 103) – Ernest Lawrence
- meitnerium (Mt, 109) – Lise Meitner
- mendelevium (Md, 101) – Dmitri Mendeleev
- nobelium (No, 102) – Alfred Nobel
- roentgenium (Rg, 111) – Wilhelm Roentgen (formerly Ununumium)
- rutherfordium (Rf, 104) – Ernest Rutherford
- seaborgium (Sg, 106) – Glenn T. Seaborg
