Element Symbol to Name Lookup

About this calculator

This element symbol lookup reverses the usual direction of a periodic table search: instead of finding a symbol from a name, you type the one- or two-letter IUPAC symbol — like Fe, Na, or Au — and get back the full element name, its atomic number (the number of protons, which fixes its position on the table), and its standard atomic mass in atomic mass units.

Chemical symbols are drawn from Latin or Greek roots (Fe from ferrum, Na from natrium, Au from aurum), which is why they rarely match the English name and are easy to mix up. Chemistry students, teachers grading lab reports, and anyone reading a materials data sheet or supplement label use this tool to quickly confirm which of the 118 known elements a given symbol refers to without paging through a full periodic table.