Chemical symbol

is a one- or two-letter designation of an element. Some examples of chemical symbols are O for oxygen, Zn for zinc, and Fe for iron. The first letter of a symbol is always capitalized. If the symbol contains two letters, the second letter is lower case. The majority of elements have symbols that are based on their English names. However, some of the elements that have been known since ancient times have maintained symbols that are based on their Latin names, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Symbols and Latin Names for Elements