In describing chemical substances, we are dealing with a need for effective communication using an appropriate language. Constant development in the field has demanded evolution of nomenclature, and the international rules were revised or supplemented in 1959, 1970, 1977, 1990 and again early in the twentyfirst century like all languages, chemical language continues to evolve. Although an international 'language' for organic molecules commenced from a meeting in 1892, it was some time later that a systematic international inorganic nomenclature developed, and it was as late as 1940 that a full systematic nomenclature was assembled. His system of leading with the names of ligands followed by the metal name, as well as also employing structural 'locators', is still with us today. In large part, our current approach in coordination chemistry derived from nomenclature concepts introduced by Werner to represent the range of new complexes that he and contemporaries were developing, providing both composition and structural information. Since nomenclature evolved along with chemistry, it was far from systematic even up to the beginning of the twentieth century. This was eventually addressed in the early days of 'modern' chemistry in the late eighteenth century, and modern nomenclature evolved from that early work.

From very early times, alchemists gave names to substances, although these names gave little if any indication of the actual composition and or structure, which is the aim of a true nomenclature.

Peter atkins organic chemistry