Only a handful of people have been honoured with an element named after them. Most were named long after the scientist died; two were honoured while still alive. Together they form a short history of the physics and chemistry that built the modern periodic table.
The list
| Element | Symbol | Named after | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samarium (62) | Sm | Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets (via the mineral samarskite) | Russian mining engineer who supplied the mineral samples |
| Gadolinium (64) | Gd | Johan Gadolin | Finnish chemist who discovered the first rare earth element, yttrium |
| Curium (96) | Cm | Marie and Pierre Curie | Pioneers of radioactivity; discovered polonium and radium |
| Einsteinium (99) | Es | Albert Einstein | Relativity, E = mc², the photoelectric effect |
| Fermium (100) | Fm | Enrico Fermi | First nuclear reactor (1942); nuclear physics |
| Mendelevium (101) | Md | Dmitri Mendeleev | Creator of the periodic table |
| Nobelium (102) | No | Alfred Nobel | Inventor of dynamite; founder of the Nobel Prizes |
| Lawrencium (103) | Lr | Ernest Lawrence | Invented the cyclotron particle accelerator |
| Rutherfordium (104) | Rf | Ernest Rutherford | Discovered the atomic nucleus |
| Seaborgium (106) | Sg | Glenn Seaborg | Co-discovered ten elements; redesigned the periodic table |
| Bohrium (107) | Bh | Niels Bohr | The Bohr model of the atom; quantum theory |
| Meitnerium (109) | Mt | Lise Meitner | Co-discovered and explained nuclear fission |
| Roentgenium (111) | Rg | Wilhelm Röntgen | Discovered X-rays |
| Copernicium (112) | Cn | Nicolaus Copernicus | Placed the Sun at the centre of the solar system |
| Flerovium (114) | Fl | Georgy Flyorov | Founded the Dubna lab where many superheavy elements were made |
| Oganesson (118) | Og | Yuri Oganessian | Led superheavy element research at Dubna |
(Samarium is an indirect case — it’s named after a mineral that was itself named after a person — so it’s often counted as the first element linked to a real individual. Strictly, flerovium is named after the Flerov Laboratory, which honours Georgy Flyorov.)
Stories behind a few of them
Curium is the only element named after two people, Marie and Pierre Curie, and it deliberately mirrors gadolinium, the lanthanide directly above it, which honours Gadolin. Marie Curie remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. See Marie Curie’s elements.
Einsteinium and fermium were first detected in 1952 in the debris of “Ivy Mike”, the first hydrogen bomb test. The discovery was classified, and the names were only made public in 1955 — the year Einstein died.
Mendelevium was made in 1955, one atom at a time — about 17 atoms in the first experiment — by a team including Seaborg. Naming it after a Russian scientist during the Cold War was a gesture towards science’s international character.
Seaborgium was named in 1997 while Glenn Seaborg was still alive — the first time a living person had been honoured this way. Seaborg joked that he could now receive mail addressed in chemical symbols: Sg, Lr (lawrencium, for the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where he worked), Bk (berkelium), Cf (californium), Am (americium).
Meitnerium honours Lise Meitner, who, with her nephew Otto Frisch, gave the physical explanation of nuclear fission in 1939. Her collaborator Otto Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize for the discovery; Meitner did not, a decision now widely seen as a serious oversight. Meitnerium and curium are the only elements that honour women, and meitnerium is the only one named after a woman alone.
Oganesson (2016) honours Yuri Oganessian, making him the second living person to have an element named after him. See the newest elements.
The rules
IUPAC allows an element to be named after a scientist, a place, a mythological concept, a mineral or a property. The name is proposed by the discoverers and must end in -ium — or -ine for group 17 and -on for group 18. See how elements get their names.
Quick answers
How many elements are named after people? About 15–16, depending on whether you count indirect cases like samarium and flerovium.
Which elements are named after women? Curium (Marie Curie, with Pierre) and meitnerium (Lise Meitner).
Who has an element named after them while alive? Glenn Seaborg (seaborgium, 1997) and Yuri Oganessian (oganesson, 2016).
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