where do the names of the elements come from
Naming of chemical elements Chemical elements are sometimes named after people, especially the synthetic elements discovered (created) after ca. 1940. However, very few are named after their discoverers, and even fewer are named after living people. The element seaborgium is named after Glenn Seaborg, who was alive at the time[2]; and oganesson is named after Yuri Oganessian (still living as of May 2017[update]).
Empedocles Empedocles established four ultimate elements which make all the structures in the world—fire, air, water, earth[31]— in other words, the several states of matter are represented, being energies, gasses, liquids, and solids. Empedocles called these four elements "roots", which he also identified with the mythical names of Zeus, Hera, Nestis, and Aidoneus[32] (e.g., "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus. And Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears."[33]) Empedocles never used the term "element" (Greek: στοιχεῖον, stoicheion), which seems to have been first used by Plato.[34] According to the different proportions in which these four indestructible and unchangeable elements are combined with each other the difference of the structure is produced. It is in the aggregation and segregation of elements thus arising, that Empedocles, like the atomists, found the real process which corresponds to what is popularly termed growth, increase or decrease. Nothing new comes or can come into being; the only change that can occur is a change in the juxtaposition of element with element. This theory of the four elements became the standard dogma for the next two thousand years.