Elemental naming

The naming of the elements is a fascinating history. Interested readers are advised to consult PT Atkins's delightful book, The Periodic Kingdom, for more info. Also, GPeriodic is one hell of a useful little tool -- props!

• Hydrogen - Greek hydro + genus, "water-giving"
  • Produced/described by Von Hohenheim (Paracelsus), discretized by Cavendish (1766)
  • Named by Lavoisier (1793) upon producting water via combusting H₂ + O₂
• Helium - Greek helios for the sun, where it was first found (Janssen, 1868)
• Lithium - Greek lithos, "stone" (Arfvedson, 1817)
• Beryllium - Greek beryllos named its ore, "beryl" (Vauquelin, 1798)
• 31 - Gallium (Ga) - from Latin Gallia meaning France (but see "Le coq" story)
  • Predicted by Mendeleev in 1871 as eka-aluminum
  • Discovered by Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875 via sphalerite spectrometry
• 85 - Astatine (At) - astatos (ἄστατος), "unstable"
  • Rarest natural element in the Earth's crust
• 87 - Francium (Fr) - from France (Marguerite Perey at Curie Institue)
  • Last element discovered in nature before synthesized