The article analyzes the names for the chemical elements discovered from antiquityuntil 1945. The etymology of each of the names, which total 96, is given in Section2, together with bibiographical information about their first appearance. In a number ofcases, more names were coined, and, whenever this is still reflected in some languages, itis accounted for (conversely, names such as columbium for niobium are disregarded asthey do not consistute offical names). In the discussion section, the names for the elementsin the three Nordic languages are comparatively analyzed with regard to 1) lexical strategies;2) loanword acquisition; and 3) word formation.