Turkium and Istanetium - Why are there no Turkish Elements in the Periodic Table?

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev is an important name

He was born in Tobolsk, Russia in 1834 and died in 1907 in St. Petersburg, one of the largest cities of Russia.

A chemist and inventor, Mendeleyev's greatest contribution to science is that he invented the Periodic Table, which is still in use today.

Mendeleyev, the youngest child of a family of 17 children, found the Periodic Law to sort the Periodic Table, corrected the properties of some elements that had been found until then, and predicted the properties of 8 elements that had not yet been found.

In 1867, Mendeleyev, who was a lecturer at the university, wrote ‘Principles of Chemistry’ as a textbook and published the first volume in 1868 and the second volume in 1870, which attracted much attention and continued to be taught as a textbook for a long time in different countries. While preparing this book, Mendeleyev realised that the chemical properties of elements vary according to their atomic weights and the number of electrons in their outer orbits.

Mendeleyev attributes how he systematised this information with a table to a dream he had: ‘In my dream, I saw a table in which all the elements were in their proper place. When I woke up, I immediately wrote the table on a piece of paper, which I quickly created at the time, but later I only needed to make a correction in one place.’

Interestingly, the periodic table showed the elements that had been discovered in the world as well as the elements that had not yet been discovered.

Over time, some of these elements were discovered and some were artificially synthesised.

Discovering and naming new elements also made the name immortalised. Scientists from the advanced countries of the world were competing to discover and name the elements that should be in the periodic table but had not yet been discovered.

When Mendeleyev printed the first periodic table, 63 elements were known. One year after his death, the number of known elements had increased to 86. This rapid increase was achieved through the periodic table, the most important generalisation of chemistry.

The scientific world also showed its gratitude for Mendeleyev's invention of the periodic table by naming an element after him.

In 1955, the element with atomic number 101, synthesised by American physicists led by Glenn Seaborg, was named ‘mendelevium’ in honour of Dmitri Mendeleyev.

Today, there are 118 elements in the periodic table. The table below shows which elements were discovered by scientists from which countries.

There are not many countries that can produce scientists who can carry out the prestigious task of discovering elements.
Some elements in the periodic table have been known since ancient times. Carbon, Oxygen, Iron, Copper, Copper, Zinc, Arsenic, Silver, Tin, Antimony, Gold, Mercury, Lead and Bismuth are among these elements.
There are only 13 countries in the world that have discovered or synthesised any element. The United Kingdom has discovered or synthesised 23 elements, Germany and Sweden 19 each, the USA and France 17 each, and Russia 6. Austria, Denmark, Spain and Switzerland have discovered or synthesised 2 elements each, while Finland, Italy and Romania have discovered or synthesised only 1 element each.
The names given to the discovered or synthesised elements can sometimes be the name of the discoverer, the country of the discoverer or another name.
Of the 118 elements known today, the names of 32 of them are associated with the names of places in the world, and the names of 9 of them are associated with astronomical objects.
Helium comes from the Sun, Tellurium from the Earth, Selenium from the Moon, Mercury from Mercury, Uranium from Uranus, Neptunium from Neptune, Plutonium from Pluto, Cerium from the dwarf planet Ceres and Palladium from the asteroid Pallas.
There are also elements bearing the names of individuals. Only Yuri Cholakovich Oganesian, for whom element 118, oganesson, is named, is alive. Oganesyan is a Soviet scientist of Armenian origin. The name Colakovich comes from his father, who was from Igdir.
Another person who was named after an element while he was alive is US chemist Glenn Seaborg, who was also named after element 106, Seaborgium.
Like Seaborg, there are other Nobel laureates named after elements: Bohrium was named after Niels Bohr, Curium after Marie and Pierre Curie, Einsteinium after Albert Einstein, Fermium after Enrico Fermi, Lawrencium after Ernest Lawrence, Roentgenium after Wilhelm Röntgen and Rutherfordium after Ernest Rutherford.

There are also scientists who are not Nobel laureates but have elements named after them. Copernicium is named after Nicolaus Copernicus (Copernicus), Meitnerium after Lise Meitner, Mendelevium after Dmitri Mendeleev, Nobelium after Alfred Nobel and Oganesson after Yuri Oganessian.

Flerovium is named after Georgy Flyorov, Samarium after Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets and Gadolinium after Johan Gadolin.

The origin of the name of the element gallium has an interesting story. Although Lecoq de Boisbaudran, the discoverer of the element, said that he named the element Gallium after Gaul, the Latin name of his country France, some malicious people claimed that Lecoq actually named the element after himself. In Latin, Gallus means rooster and Lecoq means Rooster. Therefore, similar to Turkey being represented by the Turkey, France is represented by the Rooster.

There are also elements named after different places in the world.

The element Polonium was named by Marie Curi after her country Poland. The elements Francium and Gallium are both named after France. The element Nihonium is named after Japan and the element Germanium after Germany.

The element Beryllium takes its name from Beryl, a mineral. This mineral is also named after a city in India.

The element Indium is named after the Indigo colour in its spectrum. The name Indigo also means from India.

Americium element takes its name from America and Europium from Europe. Berkelium takes its name from the famous Berkeley University in the USA, while Tennessine and Californium take their names from the US states of Tennessee and California.

Dubnium and Moscovium are named after the cities of Dubna and Moscow in Russia.

Scandinavian chemists also gave the ancient names of their homelands to the elements they discovered.

The element hafnium is named after Hafnia, the Latin name of the Danish capital Copenhagen.

Holmium is named after Holmia, the Latin name of the Swedish capital Stockholm.

Scandivium is named after Scandinavia.

Thulium is named after Ultima Thule, the ancient name for the Arctic region.

The origin of the names of the elements yttrium, terbium, erbium and ytterbium is very interesting. The names of all these elements are variants of the name of the town of Ytterby in Sweden, where the ores are found.
The name of the element ruthenium comes from the Latin name Ruthenia, given to Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
The name Lutetium comes from Lutetia, the Latin name for Paris.
The name Copper (copper) comes from the island of Cyprus (Cyprus).
Magnesium and Manganese are named after the city of Manisa.
Since we did not act quickly, there are no more elements to be discovered. However, an element named Turkium or an element named Istanbulium in the Periodic Table would be nice.