11 Elements Named After Mythological Figures and Folklore

Some elements, such as californium and moscovium, are named after geographical locations. Others pay homage to notable scientists, like Albert Einstein (einsteinium) and Pierre and Marie Curie (curium). There are also those whose names celebrate famous gods and mythological beings. Keep reading for 11 fascinating examples.

1. Promethium

While working on the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II, chemist Charles Coryell, along with his team members Larry Glendenin and Jacob Marinsky, sought to identify elements produced during uranium nuclear fission [PDF]. One such element, element 61, was a rare earth metal not yet discovered, believed to be positioned between neodymium and samarium on the periodic table.

It was Coryell’s wife, Grace Mary, who proposed naming the radioactive element after Prometheus, the Greek Titan who defied the gods by stealing fire and giving it to humanity. His act of rebellion was met with eternal punishment: Zeus had him chained to a mountain where an eagle would daily tear out his regenerating liver. As Glendenin remarked in 1976, the name promethium symbolizes the dramatic creation of the element through nuclear fission and serves as a warning of the dangers of war’s punishment by the “vulture” of conflict [PDF].

2. Titanium

The discovery of titanium is attributed to British mineralogist William Gregor, who first identified the mysterious metal in a black sandy mineral called menachanite in 1791. However, the element did not receive its name until four years later, when German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth independently found the same metal in another mineral, rutile. After learning of Gregor's discovery, Klaproth recognized the two metals were identical and named the element 'titanium' after the powerful Greek Titans. Titanium certainly lives up to its name, as it resists corrosion and boasts impressive tensile strength, especially considering its low density.

3. Nickel

According to legend, when German miners discovered a reddish mineral that appeared to contain copper but actually didn’t, they named it kupfernickel. The word kupfer means copper, and nickel refers to a mischievous, mythological demon, or sometimes the devil. In 1751, Swedish chemist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt identified the real element hidden in this 'devil’s copper': a shiny new metal which he named nickel. The other component of kupfernickel, now known as niccolite or nickeline, contains arsenic.

4. Cobalt

Cobalt was named after a different trickster from German folklore: the kobolds, mischievous sprites or goblins believed to haunt mines (or assist with household tasks). Like nickel, cobalt often combines with arsenic to form mineral compounds. When German miners attempted to extract the unidentified metal from its ore—a challenging task—they often encountered poisonous arsenic oxide, which they blamed on the kobolds. As a result, they named the troublesome substance 'kobold.' By the time Swedish chemist Georg Brandt successfully isolated the element in the 1730s, it had already been referred to as cobalt in various languages, including English.

5. Tantalum

In Greek mythology, Tantalus was a son of Zeus, condemned by the gods to stand forever in a pool of water that he could never drink, with fruit just out of his reach. (Although different versions of his offense exist, one story tells that he killed his own son and served him to the gods to see if they would notice.)

In 1802, Swedish chemist Anders Gustaf Ekeberg discovered a new, hard, gray metal that was nearly impossible to dissolve in acid. He named it tantalum—partly following the tradition of naming elements after figures from mythology, and partly because the metal's oxide was impervious to dissolution, even when surrounded by an abundance of acid, much like Tantalus in his eternal torment.

6. Niobium

Before it was known as niobium, element 41 was called columbium, a name inspired by the New World. British chemist Charles Hatchett discovered the shiny, grayish metal in a mineral sample from New England in 1801. Hatchett’s discovery came just one year before Ekeberg identified tantalum, and for a while, some scientists believed that the two elements were actually the same. However, in the 1840s, German chemist Heinrich Rose proved they were distinct and renamed columbium to niobium, after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus. Though niobium gained international acceptance, the name columbium persisted in the U.S. for some time.

7. Thorium

In 1815, Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius thought he had found a new substance in mineral samples from Norway and Sweden. He called it Thorjord, or “Thor’s earth,” after the thunderous Norse god Thor. Although Thorjord turned out to be just yttrium phosphate, Berzelius later got the chance to honor the god again when he discovered the new element thorium in the late 1820s.

8. Cerium

Berzelius didn't stop at naming thorium after a god—his naming of cerium was just as mythologically inspired, albeit more indirectly. In 1803, Berzelius and his colleague Wilhelm Hisinger discovered the silvery rare earth metal and named it cerium after the recently discovered asteroid (now a dwarf planet) Ceres. The asteroid was named after the Roman goddess of agriculture and harvests, which is also the source of the word “cereal.”

9. Palladium

In 1802, just a year after the discovery of Ceres, a smaller asteroid was spotted and named Pallas, after Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war. British chemist William Hyde Wollaston, who had recently isolated a new element, honored the asteroid by naming the metal palladium. Before settling on this name, however, he briefly considered calling it ceresium, which might have complicated Berzelius and Hisinger's plans for naming another element.

10. Vanadium

Although Spanish mineralogist Andrés Manuel del Río had technically discovered vanadium in 1801, he initially mistook it for a form of chromium, calling it “erythronium.” It wasn’t until 1830, when Sweden’s Nils Gabriel Sefström identified it as a separate element, that vanadium was recognized. Sefström named it after Vanadis, an Old Norse goddess of beauty, a fitting tribute since vanadium can change color depending on its oxidation state.

11. Iridium

Iridium got its name due to the brilliant range of colors it produces in its compounds. In 1803, British chemist Smithson Tennant, upon discovering the element, noted, “I should incline to call this metal iridium, from the striking variety of colours which it gives, while dissolving in marine acid.” While Tennant didn’t detail the exact inspiration for the name, it's widely believed he chose it after Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow, since the word iris itself translates to “rainbow” in Greek.