Sodium, as a pure metal, was first isolated in 1807 by the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy.

Quick Scoop

  • Before 1807, people knew sodium only in its compounds, like common salt and soda, not as the free metal.
  • In 1807, Davy used electrolysis of molten sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) to separate out metallic sodium for the first time.
  • The element’s symbol “Na” comes from the Latin name natrium , proposed a few years after its isolation.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.