Sn

With only three letters, Tin has the shortest name of all chemical elements. Tin’s chemical symbol, Sn, originates from the latin word “stannum”. Gold (Au), Iron (Fe), and Zinc (Zn) all have four letters. Tin is a soft, silvery-white metal with a bluish tinge. Tin is widely used for plating steel cans used as food containers, in metals used for bearings, and in solder. Perhaps the most important use of tin, historically, has been to make bronze — an alloy of copper and tin or other metals — that changed civilization by ushering in the Bronze Age.