The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the gatekeeper to the periodic table, announced the proposed names for elements 113, 115, 117 and 118: nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson. The new names for the four superheavy, radioactive elements will replace the seventh row’s uninspired placeholders of ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctium.

Iupac officially recognized the elements in December and gave naming rights to teams of scientists from the United States, Russia and Japan, who made the discoveries. The proposed names had to follow Iupac rules and are now available for public review. People have until November to object to the proposals, and Iupac has the final say.

• Nihonium, symbol Nh, was discovered by scientists at the Riken institute in Japan. They are the first from Asia to earn the right to propose an addition to the table.
• Moscovium, symbol Mc, is named for Moscow, which is near the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.
• Tennessine, symbol Ts, gets its name from the state of Tennessee, where Oak Ridge National Laboratory is. After californium, it is the second element named for one of the 50 states.
• They selected Oganesson, symbol Og, for Yuri Oganessian, who helped discover several superheavy elements. If accepted, it will be only the second time that an element is named for a living person. The first was element 106, seaborgium, named for Glenn T. Seaborg.