Re: Names of World Countries

So far as I can tell, there is only one country named for an element. Argentina takes its name from the Latin word Argentum which means "silver". In fact, the chemical symbol for silver is Ag, also from the Latin. Mad Scientist Amanda Kahn adds:

There are plenty of
elements named after countries, planets, and states.  Here they are, in 
alphabetical order --
	Americum, Berkelium (for the University of California),
Californium, Cerium (named after an asteroid),Copper (named after the
Latin word for the country Cyprus), Erbium/Terbium/Ytterbium/Yttrium
(named after an area of Sweden), Europium, Francium, Gallium, Germanium,
Hafnium (after Copenhagen), Helium (named after the sun), Holmium (named
after Stockholm), Luteium (named after the Latin word for Paris), Mercury,
Neptunium, Palladium (named after an asteroid), Plutonium, Polonium (named
after Poland), Rhenium (named after the Rhine River in Europe), Ruthenium
(named after the Latin word for Russia), Scandium (named after
Scandinavia), Selenium (named after the Greek word for the moon),
Strontium (named after a part of Scotland), Tellurium (named after the
Latin word for Earth),Thulium (named after an ancient area of
Scandinavia), Uranium.

This list was taken from _The Elements_ by John Emsley, published by 
Oxford University Press.  Hope this helps!

--Amanda Kahn