this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2025
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edit: many, not most

Based on a few quick searches, here's what I came up with. You can tell that I got pretty bored once I got to the Lanthanide series and beyond. The ones without ":" are the ones I didn't check, as I doubt there's any software called "Dysprosium" and "Roentgenium", but I would love to be proven wrong!

One thing of note, I included a few racehorses are named after elements (most of which from the 1800s, which is interesting)

1 - H - Hydrogen: open-source drum machine

2 - He - Helium: Chromium-based browser, "Helium10" is e-commerce software

3 - Li - Lithium: "Li3", formerly "lithium", is a PHP web framework, optimization mod for Minecraft

4 - Be - Beryllium: proprietary lathe software written in Python

5 - B - Boron: N/A?

6 - C - Carbon: C-based API developed by Apple to port classic Mac apps to MacOS X, programming language developed by Google to be interoperable with C++, "Karbon" is some accounting management software

7 - N - Nitrogen: Financial planning software (previously "Riskalyze"). Funnily enough, there is also a racehorse called "Nitrogen" which, according to Wikipedia, was the 2024 "Canadian Champion Two-Year-Old Filly"!

8 - O - Oxygen: default font in KDE, "OxygenOS" is the skin of Android in (global) OnePlus phones. "Oxygen XML editor" is self-explanatory. Again, there is a racehorse called "Oxygen" which Wikipedia says was regarded as the "leading two-year-old filly in the South of England in 1830"!

9 - F - Fluorine: some productivity app

10 - Ne - Neon: game engine, music visualisation software, "KDE Neon" is a distro developed by KDE

11 - Na - Sodium: Minecraft optimization mod, MMO game for PS3, and interestingly enough, another racehorse!

12 - Mg - Magnesium: port of the "Sodium" Minecraft optimization mod for Forge

13 - Al - Aluminium: Google's "Aluminium OS" (replacement for ChromeOS), various software designed for manufacturing/designing aluminium parts

14 - Si - Silicon: "Silicon IDE" is self explanatory, "Silicon Labs" is a Japanese technology company, Apple's processors are known as "Apple Silicon", you of course have "Silicon Valley"

15 - P - Phosphorus: some IoT enterprise solution. This is also yet another racehorse, which won the 1837 Epsom Derby despite having a leg injury!

16 - S - Sulfur/Sulphur: a modern old-school action-adventure game, codename for Fedora 9. "Sulphur Nimbus: Hel's Elixir" is a game on itch.io where you control a hippogriff, interesting!

17 - Cl - Chlorine: library to interact with OpenCL devices

18 - Ar - Argon: CAD modelling software, tool for developing Roblox games. "Argon2" is a cryptographic key derivation function that won the 2015 Password Hashing Competition

19 - K - Potassium: "Kalium" (where we get the symbol "K" from!) is the name of a web framework that handle asynchronous microservices

20 - Ca - Calcium: digital health software, web calendar by "Brown Bear Software"

21 - Sc - Scandium: Automation tool for software testing. One thing of note, a company called "Element 21" (a golf and fishing equipment company) paid the Russian Federal Space Agency to launch a golf ball into space!

22 - Ti - Titanium: Sophisticated malware discovered in 2019 by Kaspersky Lab. "Titanium SDK" is used to develop native Android and iOS apps using JavaScript.

23 - V - Vanadium: Browser developed by the GrapheneOS team

24 - Cr - Chromium: The backbone of all the modern browsers, aside from Firefox and its forks, OpenGL implementation

25 - Mn - Manganese: Codename for Windows 10 20H2 apparently?

26 - Fe - Iron: C# library company (they have a suite of .NET apps prefixed with "Iron"), "IronFox" is a privacy-focused Android browser

27 - Co - Cobalt: codename for v6.0 of PalmOS, action side-scrolling game developed by Mojang, CAD modelling program

28 - Ni - Nickel: some payment processor

29 - Cu - Copper: some web-based project management tool

30 - Zn - Zinc: "Zinc Application Platform" is used for creating GUI apps. "OpenZinc" is a project to preserve v1.0 to v4.2 of the former. It's also ANOTHER racehorse!

31 - Ga - Gallium: "Gallium3D" is a set of open-source graphics drivers that is part of the Mesa library of graphics drivers. "GalliumOS" is a discontinued OS targeting Chromebooks

32 - Ge - Germanium: Codename for Windows 11 24H2

33 - As - Arsenic: audience response system (whatever that is?), some online gaming website

34 - Se - Selenium: software testing framework

35 - Br - Bromine: codename for Windows 11 26H2 (an apt name, it sounds very smelly with lots of AI "features"...). "Bromite", the Chromium-based browser, is pretty close but is an ion containing bromine (BrO2-)

36 - Kr - Krypton: a programming language

37 - Rb - Rubidium: N/A?

38 - Sr - Strontium: Russian hacker group "Fancy Bear" is sometimes called "STRONTIUM"

39 - Y - Yttrium: Russian hacker group "Cozy Bear" is sometimes called "YTTRIUM"

40 - Zr - Zirconium: N/A?

41 - Nb - Niobium: N/A?

42 - Mo - Molybdenum: N/A?

43 - Tc - Technetium: N/A?

44 - Ru - Ruthenium: N/A?

45 - Rh - Rhodium: N/A?

46 - Pd - Palladium: A 1958 CIA program to study and interfere Soviet radar (yes really)

47 - Ag - Silver: 2nd gen Pokemon game, various video game characters named Silver

48 - Cd - Cadmium: N/A?

49 - In - Indium: N/A?

50 - Sn - Tin: newsreader software

51 - Sb - Antimony: CAD software

52 - Te - Tellurium: some Python package about biology stuff idk

53 - I - Iodine: some AI software used in hospitals, idk

54 - Xe - Xenon: Dutch software used in 6 countries to find tax evaders (yes really), codename for Xbox 360

55 - Cs - Caesium/Cesium: library specialising in "3D geospatial visualisation" (i.e. globes)

56 - Ba - Barium: N/A?

57 - La - Lanthanum: N/A?

58 - Ce - Cerium
59 - Pr - Praseodymium
60 - Nd - Neodymium
61 - Pm - Promethium
62 - Sm - Samarium
63 - Eu - Europium
64 - Gd - Gadolinium
65 - Tb - Terbium
66 - Dy - Dysprosium
67 - Ho - Holmium
68 - Er - Erbium
69 - Tm - Thulium
70 - Yb - Ytterbium
71 - Lu - Lutetium
72 - Hf - Hafnium
73 - Ta - Tantalum

74 - W - Tungsten: "WolframAlpha" is a supercharged version of the calculator ("Wolfram" is where we get the W!), "Wolfram Language" is used in the computing program "Wolfram Mathematica"

75 - Re - Rhenium

76 - Os - Osmium: N/A?

77 - Ir - Iridium

78 - Pt - Platinum: 4th gen pokemon game

79 - Au - Gold: 2nd gen Pokemon game and its protagonist

80 - Hg - Mercury: software developed by the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre to analyze crystal structures

81 - Tl - Thallium

82 - Pb - Lead: N/A?

83 - Bi - Bismuth: programming language, tiling windows add-on for KDE Plasma

84 - Po - Polonium: N/A?

85 - At - Astatine
86 - Rn - Radon
87 - Fr - Francium
88 - Ra - Radium 89 - Ac - Actinium
90 - Th - Thorium
91 - Pa - Protactinium

92 - U - Uranium: backup software

93 - Np - Neptunium: N/A?

94 - Pu - Plutonium: Call of Duty mod

95 - Am - Americium
96 - Cm - Curium
97 - Bk - Berkelium
98 - Cf - Californium
99 - Es - Einsteinium
100 - Fm - Fermium

101 - Md - Mendelevium: N/A?

102 - No - Nobelium
103 - Lr - Lawrencium
104 - Rf - Rutherfordium
105 - Db - Dubnium
106 - Sg - Seaborgium 107 - Bh - Bohrium
108 - Hs - Hassium
109 - Mt - Meitnerium
110 - Ds - Darmstadtium
111 - Rg - Roentgenium
112 - Cn - Copernicium
113 - Nh - Nihonium
114 - Fl - Flerovium
115 - Mc - Moscovium
116 - Lv - Livermorium
117 - Ts - Tennessine

118 - Og - Oganesson: free open-source cache deleter? Weird

Is this the right community to post this in? It's not really a meme, but it's not very serious either...

Now I need to get back to doing chemistry homework...

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[–] fysyszykytypy@lemmy.world 15 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

84 - Po - Polonium - Polish government system for information about higher education and science (POL-on) - https://polon.nauka.gov.pl/en/

86 - Rn - Radonium - Reporting system based on information collected in POL-on and other polish sources about science in Poland - https://radon.nauka.gov.pl/

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

huh, who knew. I really ran out of steam after technetium

[–] fysyszykytypy@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

Well, I forgot to mention I am truly impressed by your list.

POL-on and RAD-on are quite specialized pieces of software that even in Poland aren't known very well. And the names come from polish words without "-ium", so they could not not pop up in english search results. Surely there are more niche pieces neither of us stand a chance to find easily