Naming a new substance

Names are an on-off achillies heel for me, some days I get some great brainwave about one and other days I spend hours trying to find a fitting name and never really do. This, unfortunately, is the latter

I have a fantastical substance, a metal, specifically, in my story that is quite important. It is very tough and unreactive, it can be infused with magic (unlike other metals, as metal tends to be a bane to magic) and when this happens it's other properties are further heightened. The most important thing about it though is that it's discovery and subsequent use is basically the reason why two of my species allied themselves with each other, and why one taught magic to the other-it holds deep cultural and historical importance in the story, which is why I want a unique name for it that sounds just right.

I used some Latin translators as a basic starting point, because generally the Latin word for whatever embodies the thing I'm naming can easily be twisted about into a fitting fantasy name. I trawled through a long list of likely words and got a few ok-ish name ideas:

Ossolite - osso means bone and the metal ore is taken from deep in the earth, the 'bones' of the mountains. Could also be a reference to the fact it is the first part of the structure of relations between two species.

Atralite - atra means dark, and the ore is found in the darkest places of the world. Not sure if this fits too well to be honest, as dark is generally a negative term and this metal brought about good things.

I prefer Ossolite at the moment, but that is still just a latin word stuck onto a metallic word really, and it needs improving at least. If anyone can think of a different name entirely that sounds good then I'm all for that as well, of everything so far this is the hardest thing to find a name for (apart from my continent, but that's a whole other kettle of fish)

thanks for replies so far

just to clarify, the majority of metals and materials in my world are called by their traditional names to avoid huge confusion. So you have gold, silver, iron and so on (in fact, one of my races bases their culture almost entirely around the worth of various metal).

that is a good point about the ore differing from the metal itself...it isn't an alloy or anything but I suppose that yes, the refined product is very different from the raw resource.

would it help to name the ore after it's appearance? To those who work with the metal, it's properties are considered extremely useful and so the substance itself is practically sacred in a culture based on metals. But if they first discovered the ore and were still figuring out how to refine it, I doubt they would name it something like 'blessed ore' because they aren't sure if it's any good yet.

...hmm...lots of metals have crystilline structures visible in their refined states...would it be possible to take this even further and have the ore look almost like a gem or crystal of some kind?

or perhaps the ore looks very different from the metal itself. perhaps the ore is either very light or dark in colour, but when exposed to extreme heat it changes dramatically and becomes lighter/darker, and maybe even heavier or lighter due to it's magical properties?

If I can come up with a convincing but intriguing appearance for the ore itself, then a name for that should spring to mind, and the name of the metal could then be derived from how it changes or how valuble it is.

PS: While on the subject of naming things I'll slip this in anyway. Naming lands/worlds, now that's tricky. Apart from the above problem, only thing I have really struggled with so far. Seems to me like a lot of fantasy realms begin with the letter A and are long and fanciful, any particular reason for this? Any tips on how to avoid a cliché, overly complex name, and have it somehow sound convincing as the name of a land, as opposed to a person or town? Usually when I read them the names slot well into their role but as proven by the first problem, I have a hard time getting that.

thanks again for replies all.

I'm interested in trying out your idea benbradley, about having the common and proffesional names, both to show it's continued use and importance in the culture and to help distinguish between class. Fusionite, while relevant, sounds a bit...spacey? A bit more sci-fi than fantasy (which is what I'm after, sorry if I forgot to mention that).

...if the refined metal was extremely cold to the touch due to it's density/need for extreme heat to be altered/ whatever, could the 'common' name be something like Frosteel? Or is that too cliché or just plain odd sounding?

hmm..good point. It seems I need to start thinking a little more like a metal-worker, put myself in my character's mindset. If they know lots about metal I suppose they wouldn;t stick steel onto the name of an un-steel-like substance.

I'm not exactly a huge metallurgy expert, but the closest thing I could compare it to would be titanium (or at least the titanium-based metal used to armour tanks and so on), or something like gold/platinum, or a combination of both. It is incredibly tough and also quite shiny and un-reactive. While gold (perhaps platinum) is known in my fantasy world, I understand titanium is a sort of recent discovery?

I can hardly call it Titanite or something though, bit of an obvious rip-off of titanium.

Pssht, I think I'll go delve into some translators again, run random connected names for some inspiration *rams mining hat onto head and flicks on the light*

good idea-ill do something similar for my land name as that is going to be very, very annoying to name. I had an idea the other day but it was about midnight and I was shattered, forgotten it now-must have apen and paper handy more often.