Chemical nomenclature is fundamental to our ability to communicate and describe organic chemistry. As identified in the previous section, nomenclature can also be used to distinguish whether two molecular depictions describe the same or different molecules. Historically, there were various methods to name molecules. In 1919, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) standardized organic nomenclature and outlined a series of rules so that all molecules could be unambiguously named. IUPAC nomenclature is still the primary method used today for naming organic molecules. Despite the standardization, some older terminology, or common nomenclature, is used preferentially for select small molecules. In this section, we will only introduce common nomenclature when it is used preferentially to IUPAC nomenclature.
Nomenclature Video Tutorial
The videos below offer an introduction to organic nomenclature to help you prepare for your organic chemistry lecture(s). The video is interactive and will automatically pause to ask you to click hotspots on the screen to help build names for the example molecules.