Naming Alkanes

Early in the history of the study of chemical substances, alchemists with the intention of hiding their work from others assigned rather strange names to these substances. Alchemy was considered a divine science, and to reveal its secrets would bring on the wrath of the gods. Early terms for chemical compounds included "sugar of Butter", "oil of vitriol", "cream of tarter", and "milk of lime". Some were named based on the color of the substance for instance "Spanish green" was the name given to basic copper acetate. Others were named according to appearance, thus ""flowers of sulfur" and "oil of tarter" (concentrated solution of potassium carbonate), "horn silver" (fused silver chloride), "cubic nitre" (sodium nitrate). Substances were also named according to taste (yuck) or smell "sugar of lead (lead acetate) and "stinking sulfureous air" (hydrogen sulfide).

The rules described below adhere to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Division, Commission on Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry.

When the alkane is composed of carbon atoms connected in a continuous chain (no branch points) it is referred to as n- or normal. Recently it has been decided to drop the n- reference but you will sometimes see n-pentane, n-hexane etc.

Obviously these structures are very simple to name, try the structure below:

This compound is more complex to name.

The naming of organic compounds consists of a series of logical steps.  The first is the determination of the "parent" name of the compound.