Apparently there were some strong feelings among at least a few 19th century gentlemen-chemists as to whether "barium" was really deserving of its heaviest-of-all-metals name.

"Plutonium" was even proposed as an alternative—though, from what I can tell, this effort didn't go anywhere, and "plutonium" (which, honestly, is way cooler than "barium" as names go) remained on the shelf for another century or so.

#chemistry #history #barium #plutonium #physics