In 1810, French physicist André-Marie Ampère suggested that hydrofluoric acid was a compound of hydrogen with an unknown element, analogous to chlorine. Fluorite was then shown to be mostly composed of calcium fluoride.
Sir Humphry Davy originally suggested the name fluorine, taking the root from the name of "fluoric acid" and the -ine suffix, similarly to other halogens. This name, with modifications, came to most European languages. (Greek, Russian, and several other languages use the name ftor or derivatives, which was suggested by Ampère and comes from the Greek φθόριος (phthorios), meaning "destructive".) The New Latin name (fluorum) gave the element its current symbol, F, although the symbol Fl has been used in early papers.  The symbol Fl is now used for the super-heavy element flerovium.