Wordorigins.org

Germanium, element 32, was named by its discoverer, German chemist Clemens Winkler, for his homeland. The name appears in English a year after Winkler’s discovery, in the 13 March 1886 issue of the London magazine Athenæum:

Prof. Clemens Winkler, in the Berichte of the Berlin Chemical Society, describes a new element—to which he has given the name of “Germanium"—in a mineral named Argyrodite [...] Germanium appears to take a place between antimony and bismuth.¹

Germanium has the chemical symbol Ge.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, germanium, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 17 September 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50094017.