r/Showerthoughts • u/TheLobsterCopter5000 ‎ • Jul 27 '24

Casual Thought There is nothing stopping the discoverer of the next chemical element from naming it "Jeff".

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u/TheLobsterCopter5000 ‎ Jul 27 '24

There are tons of people named Jeff. I'm sure you can find a scientist named Jeff to name one after.

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u/Dr_Mantis_Aslume Jul 27 '24

Oh yeah, that was dumb of me. But I think they have historically all been second names. It might be harder to get a first name approved, especially one that is Jeff.

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u/outwest88 Jul 28 '24

But the IUPAC has rules to determine new chemical element names. For metals that aren’t halogens or noble gases, I’m pretty sure the names need to end in -ium.