The naming of elements had been traditionally been the priviledge of the discoverer and the suggested name was ratified by the IUPAC. In recent years this has led to some controversy. The new elements with very high atomic numbrrs are so unstable that only minute, quantities, sometimes only a few atoms of them are obtained. Their synthesis and characterisation, therefore, require highly sophisticated costly equipment and laboratpry. scientists, before collecting reliable data on the new element, at times get tempted to claim for its discocery. For example, bpth American and Soviet scientists claimed credit for discovering element 104. The Americans named it Rutherfordium whereas Soviets named it Kurchatovium. To avoid such problems, the IUPAC has made recommendation that until a new element's discovery is proved, and its name is officially recognised, a systematic Category:nomenclature be derived directly from the atomic number of the element using numerical rpots for 0 and numbers 1-9. These are shown below in the table:-
| Digit | Name | Abbreviation |
| 0 | nil | n |
| 1 | un | u |
| 2 | bi | b |
| 3 | tri | t |
| 4 | quad | q |
| 5 | pent | p |
| 6 | hex | h |
| 7 | sept | s |
| 8 | oct | o |
| 9 | enn | e |