The gold medal goes to Sweden for naming rights on the periodic table. Elements yttrium, ytterbium, erbium, terbium and the present holmium are all named after this country. In a particularly tender moment they threw a bone to their neighbors Norway and Finland and named two more, thulium and scandium, after themselves as a whole. Unfortunately for their national pride practically none of these are none by the wider public today and remain as little more than obscure names whose only purpose seems to puzzle nerds playing Trivial Pursuit.

It’s not holmium’s fault that your average ten year old has never heard of it. It is a metal with few remarkable properties besides being gray (oh wait, that’s not remarkable). Its ability to stain glass a light blue, making for some neato eyeglass wear, seems to be one of the truly unique characteristics for which this otherwise forgotten member of the Table is known. Don’t you feel a little bad for holmium?