Periodic Table does not have an element starting with "J" or "Q" or "W"

[styfle]

All LTS releases will be assigned a "codename" drawn from the names of elements on the Periodic Table of Elements. For each upcoming LTS release, the Release working group will select a handful of candidate names and submit those for a collaborator vote.

I looked up the List of chemical elements and noticed there are no elements starting with "J" or "Q" or "W".

I realize that we won't hit "J" for 7 more LTS releases but I'm curious...how will the "codename" be decided in those 3 cases?

---

UPDATE: looks like I'm not the first to notice this problem.
Maybe other languages could solve it.

---

UPDATE 2023: "J" is officially "Jod". Let's move on to discussing "Q".

[addaleax]

It’s not exactly an answer to this question, but you may want to take a look at what we’re discussing for Node 10.x/the letter D (#291).

(I guess the real answer is “we don’t know”.)

[mhdawson]

I think we can just skip those letters.

[MylesBorins]

@mhdawson skipping letters is super confusing and I'm personally not a fan of it

[bnb]

@MylesBorins agreed. I've already had a half dozen people ask me "well, what are you going to do for the letters that don't have a corresponding element" and I don't foresee skipping letters being a simple explanation to them - let alone simple to understand for those that don't ask.

[styfle]

I too think that skipping a letter is not the correct solution. Users who are not aware of the full list of code names (think sysadmin who doesn't use node.js but is tasked with updating it) could get confused. You no longer can rely on the alphabet to know how many LTS releases you are behind the current.

It's like the caveat you'll constantly have to explain:

• Why aren't there 26 LTS releases yet we are changing themes?
• Did I skip an LTS? Where's the release after Iron?

More people have the alphabet memorized than the periodic table of elements memorized. So if no element is discovered by the time we get to J, I say just pick an arbitrary J name that sounds like an element, maybe a molecule 🤷‍♂️

[styfle]

Let's approve #318 and revisit this in 5 years 👍 5️⃣ 🤓

Plus I think J is a lie anyway 😄

[targos]

#318 landed

[styfle]

@targos Let's reopen this issue since #318 didn't solve the original issue and its almost been 5 years (ok, only 3.5 but gotta get the ball rolling 🙂)

We are going to reach "J" in a couple releases and we don't have a codename for it yet.

cc @Trott @drewfish so we can continue the discussion from #318 (comment)

[styfle]

I vote for Jabronium 😆

[jasnell]

My vote is on Jumbonium

[bnb]

+1 to Jumbonium

[devsnek]

Javaium