Not all elements are labelled simply. You have the standard C for carbon, or H for hydrogen, which are nice and straightforward but its no fun being easy to understand. Science likes to try and confuse you sometimes. This means that not all chemical symbols make sense. I mean, look at sodium. Its chemical symbol is Na. How on earth do you get Na from sodium?
As it turns out, scientists back in the Middle Ages, liked to speak Latin. And so, all our elements that we’ve known about forever, were originally given a Latin name. So sodium, before it was known as sodium, was actually called natrium. Makes sense now.
Here is a list of all the elements with funny symbols and their original names.
Antimony (Sb) – Stibium
Copper (Cu) – Cuprum
Gold (Au) – Aurum
Iron (Fe) – Ferrum
Lead (Pb) – Plumbum
Mercury (Hg) – Hydragyrum
Potassium (K) – Kalium
Silver (Ag) – Argentum
Sodium (Na) – Natrium
Tin (Sn) – Stannum
Tungsten – Wolfram