The recommendations describe three ways of assigning "parent" names to homonuclear monocyclic hydrides (i.e single rings consisting of one element):
* the Hantzsch–Widman nomenclature (the method preferred for rings of size 3–10)
* "skeletal replacement nomenclature"—specifying the replacement of carbon atoms in the corresponding carbon compound with atoms of another element (e.g. silicon becomes sila, germanium, germa) and a multiplicative prefix tri, tetra, penta etc)( the method preferred for rings greater than 10)
* by adding the prefix cyclo to the name of the corresponding unbranched, unsubstituted chain