Scandinavia

Mendeleev predicted it as eka-boron and a Swede found it, so it was named for the whole peninsula.

Lars Fredrik Nilson isolated the oxide at Uppsala in 1879 while working through euxenite and gadolinite, and named the element from Scandia, the Latin name for Scandinavia. Per Teodor Cleve recognized within months that it matched the eka-boron Mendeleev had predicted in 1871. Scandium is not rare in the crust but almost never concentrates, which keeps it expensive.