How come sodiums chemical symbol is Na?
It would be interesting to see the history of the word sodium (natrium in Latin hence Na) and also potassium (kalium in neolatin hence K). What we call today sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and potassium carbonate (K2CO3) were known to the ancients and used for washing clothes, they called them both nitron in Greek, which the Latins changed to nitrum and later to natron, as they perceived them to be the same substance. In more recent times the metal contained in the molecule Na2CO3 was discovered and named natrium because it was found in natron, also potassium was found (in what was in fact the other kind of natron) in the molecule K2CO3 and called kalium from the Arabic word for natron which is kali. Hence Na and K. Plumbum is the Latin word for lead a metal known since very ancient times.
