The term aluminum was created by the man who first identified the existence of the element, British chemist Humphry Davy. Davy originally referred to the element as alumium but ultimately altered the name to aluminum.

The term aluminium emerged around the same time as Davy’s aluminum. This term seems to have been motivated by a desire to give the element a name that sounded more like classical Latin, which was in line with other known elements at the time whose names ended in –ium, such as magnesium and calcium.

The American spelling was first.