The names for the chemical elements 104 to 108 have been the subject of a major controversy starting in the 1960s which was only finally resolved in 1997. At issue was the convention that elements are named by their discoverers which led to controversy when multiple groups claimed discovery simultaneously. The three groups which conflicted over elemental naming were an American group at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, a Russian group at Dubna, and a German group at Darmstadt.
The names preferred by the Americans were
- 104 - rutherfordium
- 105 - hahnium
- 106 - seaborgium
- 104 - kurchatovium
- 105 - nielsbohrium
In 1994, the IUPAC proposed the following names
- 104 - dubnium
- 105 - joliotium
- 106 - rutherfordium
- 107 - bohrium
- 108 - hahnium
- 109 - meitnerium
This was objected to by the American Chemical Society on the grounds that the discovery of 106 by an American group was not in question and that group should have the right to name the element whatever it wanted to. In addition, given that many American books had already used 104 and 105 for rutherfordium and hahnium, the ACS objected to those names being used for other elements.
Finally in 1997, the following names were agreed to
- 104 - rutherfordium
- 105 - dubnium
- 106 - seaborgium
- 107 - bohrium
- 108 - hassium
- 109 - meitnerium
See also: Systematic element name