Periodic Table Names Of Elements And Symbols

Why This Actually Matters

Most people memorize the periodic table in high school and never think about it again until they need it. When you do need it, you usually need it for something specific: a chemistry homework problem, a lab report, or looking up element properties for work. The names and symbols aren't as straightforward as they seem, though. There are a few quirks that trip people up regularly. I learned this the hard way back in 2018. I was helping a colleague cross-reference some isotope data for a materials science paper, and we spent nearly forty minutes confused because we couldn't agree on the symbol for einsteinium. It's Es, not Ei or En. The name comes from Einstein, but the symbol follows the standard convention of using the first two letters. That convention breaks down when you hit elements like molybdenum (Mo), tungsten (W), sodium (Na), and potassium (K). Those symbols come from their Latin or Greek roots, not their English names. If you're just memorizing the English spellings, you'll get tripped up on those every time.

Periodic Table Names Of Elements And Symbols

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) maintains the official list. There are currently 118 confirmed elements. Everything from hydrogen (H) to oganesson (Og) has a symbol, and the rules for how those symbols are assigned are actually pretty consistent once you know them. The standard naming convention is simple: take the first letter of the element's English name, always capitalized. Then take the second letter if it's needed to distinguish it from another element, always lowercase. That's it for about ninety percent of the table. The exceptions are the ones I mentioned above, plus a few others that come from historical names.

The Actual List

Here's the full set, organized by atomic number. I'm not going to format this as a table since most people just need to reference it quickly. 1 Hydrogen (H), 2 Helium (He), 3 Lithium (Li), 4 Beryllium (Be), 5 Boron (B), 6 Carbon (C), 7 Nitrogen (N), 8 Oxygen (O), 9 Fluorine (F), 10 Neon (Ne), 11 Sodium (Na), 12 Magnesium (Mg), 13 Aluminum (Al), 14 Silicon (Si), 15 Phosphorus (P), 16 Sulfur (S), 17 Chlorine (Cl), 18 Argon (Ar), 19 Potassium (K), 20 Calcium (Ca), 21 Scandium (Sc), 22 Titanium (Ti), 23 Vanadium (V), 24 Chromium (Cr), 25 Manganese (Mn), 26 Iron (Fe), 27 Cobalt (Co), 28 Nickel (Ni), 29 Copper (Cu), 30 Zinc (Zn), 31 Gallium (Ga), 32 Germanium (Ge), 33 Arsenic (As), 34 Selenium (Se), 35 Bromine (Br), 36 Krypton (Kr), 37 Rubidium (Rb), 38 Strontium (Sr), 39 Yttrium (Y), 40 Zirconium (Zr), 41 Niobium (Nb), 42 Molybdenum (Mo), 43 Technetium (Tc), 44 Ruthenium (Ru), 45 Rhodium (Rh), 46 Palladium (Pd), 47 Silver (Ag), 48 Cadmium (Cd), 49 Indium (In), 50 Tin (Sn), 51 Antimony (Sb), 52 Tellurium (Te), 53 Iodine (I), 54 Xenon (Xe), 55 Cesium (Cs), 56 Barium (Ba), 57 Lanthanum (La), 58 Cerium (Ce), 59 Praseodymium (Pr), 60 Neodymium (Nd), 61 Promethium (Pm), 62 Samarium (Sm), 63 Europium (Eu), 64 Gadolinium (Gd), 65 Terbium (Tb), 66 Dysprosium (Dy), 67 Holmium (Ho), 68 Erbium (Er), 69 Thulium (Tm), 70 Ytterbium (Yb), 71 Lutetium (Lu), 72 Hafnium (Hf), 73 Tantalum (Ta), 74 Tungsten (W), 75 Rhenium (Re), 76 Osmium (Os), 77 Iridium (Ir), 78 Platinum (Pt), 79 Gold (Au), 80 Mercury (Hg), 81 Thallium (Tl), 82 Lead (Pb), 83 Bismuth (Bi), 84 Polonium (Po), 85 Astatine (At), 86 Radon (Rn), 87 Francium (Fr), 88 Radium (Ra), 89 Actinium (Ac), 90 Thorium (Th), 91 Protactinium (Pa), 92 Uranium (U), 93 Neptunium (Np), 94 Plutonium (Pu), 95 Americium (Am), 96 Curium (Cm), 97 Berkelium (Bk), 98 Californium (Cf), 99 Einsteinium (Es), 100 Fermium (Fm), 101 Mendelevium (Md), 102 Nobelium (No), 103 Lawrencium (Lr), 104 Rutherfordium (Rf), 105 Dubnium (Db), 106 Seaborgium (Sg), 107 Bohrium (Bh), 108 Hassium (Hs), 109 Meitnerium (Mt), 110 Darmstadtium (Ds), 111 Roentgenium (Rg), 112 Copernicium (Cn), 113 Nihonium (Nh), 114 Flerovium (Fl), 115 Moscovium (Mc), 116 Livermorium (Lv), 117 Tennessine (Ts), 118 Oganesson (Og).

Where People Mess This Up

The biggest issue I see isn't the symbols themselves, it's the order and grouping. Most people learn the table as a simple memorization exercise, reading left to right across each period. That works for the first thirty elements but falls apart fast. The lanthanides and actinides are usually pulled out into separate rows at the bottom, which makes the table look like it has twelve periods instead of seven. They're still part of periods 6 and 7 respectively. Another common mistake is assuming all element names follow English naming conventions. They don't. A lot of them come from mythology (Thorium, Titanium, Prometheus), places (Germanium, Francium, Polonium), or scientists (Einsteinium, Curium, Mendeleevium). The naming system has evolved over centuries, and the early elements tend to have the weirdest symbols because they were named before the IUPAC standardization process really kicked in. There's also a practical issue with the heaviest elements. Once you get past element 100, the names get ridiculously long and the symbols are just arbitrary two-letter combinations. Elements 104 through 112 were disputed for decades between American and Soviet laboratories, each side proposing different names and symbols. IUPAC eventually settled on the current names, but you'll still find old papers using Rutherfordium as Rf and Seaborgium as Sg interchangeably with the disputed alternatives like Kurchatovium (Ku) and Unnilhexium (Unh). For modern work this doesn't matter, but if you're reading older literature it can be confusing.

What You Should Actually Memorize

Don't memorize the whole thing. There are better uses of your time. Instead, learn the first twenty cold, then focus on the common transition metals and the ones you'll actually encounter in practice. Iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), silver (Ag), gold (Au), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) show up constantly in lab work and industry. The rest you can look up when you need them. If you need the full reference for a project or classroom use, the official IUPAC periodic table is available at iupac.org. It's updated whenever new elements are confirmed, so it's the most reliable source. Commercial charts and textbook tables occasionally lag behind on the heaviest elements, which is why I always double-check against the IUPAC version when precision matters. One more thing that doesn't get enough attention: the difference between element names and isotope notation. When someone writes "C-12" or "U-235," those aren't different elements. They're isotopes of carbon and uranium respectively. The element name and symbol stay the same regardless of how many neutrons are in the nucleus. I've seen students lose points on exams for writing "Carbon-12" as a different element symbol from "Carbon-14." They're the same element. Same symbol, same name, different mass numbers.

The periodic table is a reference tool, not a trivia contest. Knowing which elements matter for your work and having a reliable way to look up the rest is more useful than reciting all one hundred eighteen from memory. I've been doing this long enough to know that the people who actually retain the full table are usually the ones preparing for competitions, not the ones solving real problems in the lab.