Organic nomenclature is the system established for naming and grouping organic compounds. An organic compound refers to any member of a large class of chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon, with exception of carbides, carbonates and carbon oxides. ...

Formally, rules established by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (known as IUPAC nomenclature) are authoritative for the names of organic compounds, but in practice, a number of simply-applied rules can allow one to use and understand the names of many organic compounds. IUPAC logo The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to the advancement of chemistry. ... IUPAC nomenclature is a systematic way of naming organic chemical compounds as recommended by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). ...

For many compounds, naming can begin by determining the name of the parent hydrocarbon and by identifying any functional groups in the molecule that distinguish it from the parent hydrocarbon. The numbering of the parent alkane is used, as modified, if necessary, by application of the Cahn Ingold Prelog priority rules in the case that ambiguity remains after consideration of the structure of the parent hydrocarbon alone. The name of the parent hydrocarbon is modified by the application of the highest-priority functional group suffix, with the remaining functional groups indicated by numbered prefixes, appearing in the name in alphabetical order from first to last. In chemistry, a hydrocarbon is any chemical compounds that consists only of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). ... In ecology functional groups are collections of organisms based on morphological, physiological, behavioral, biochemical, or environmental responses or on trophic criteria. ... An alkane in organic chemistry is a saturated hydrocarbon, that is, a hydrocarbon in which the molecule has the maximum possible number of hydrogen atoms and so has no double bonds. ... For compounds found in organic chemistry, the Cahn Ingold Prelog priority rules are used to determine the orientation of a molecule for purposes of assigning stereochemistry at a stereocenter and for assigning the name of isomers of molecules possessing double bonds such as alkenes. ...

In many cases, lack of rigor in applying all such nomenclature rules still yields a name that is intelligible — the aim, of course, being to avoid any ambiguity in terms of what substance is being discussed. For the medical term see rigor (medicine) Rigour (American English: rigor) has a number of meanings in relation to intellectual life and discourse. ...

For instance, strict application of CIP priority to the naming of the compound

 NH2CH2CH2OH 

would render the name as 2-aminoethanol, which is preferred. However, the name 2-hydroxyethanamine unambiguously refers to the same compound.

How the name was constructed:

1. There are two carbons in the main chain; this gives the root name "eth".
2. Since the carbons are singly-bonded, the suffix begins with "an".
3. The two functional groups are an alcohol (OH) and an amine (NH₂). The alcohol has the higher atomic number, and takes priority over the amine. The suffix for an alcohol ends in "ol", so that the suffix is "anol".
4. The amine group is not on the carbon with the OH (the #1 carbon), but one carbon over (the #2 carbon); therefore we indicate its presence with the prefix "2-amino".
5. Putting together the prefix, the root and the suffix, we get "2-aminoethanol".

There is also an older naming system for organic compounds known as common nomenclature, which is often used for simple, well-known compounds, and also for complex compounds whose IUPAC names are too complex for everyday use.

Simplified molecular input line entry specification (SMILES) strings are commonly used to describe organic compounds, and as such are a form of 'naming' them. The simplified molecular input line entry specification or SMILES is a specification for unambiguously describing the structure of chemical molecules using short ASCII alpha-numeric strings. ...

External link

• Wikibooks's Organic chemistry