Sodium has been used as the raw material of glass for a long time. 1702, German chemist Shtal divided "alkali" into two kinds, namely alkali (sodium carbonate) and potassium ash (potassium carbonate). 1807, British chemist David obtained metallic sodium at the cathode by electrolyzing soda (melting soda with high current). And give it a name.

1806, David predicted in a paper: "If chemical combination is as characteristic as I once boldly imagined, then the natural power of an object, no matter how strong, can't be infinite, but the power of our artificial instruments seems to be infinitely increasing", so we can "hope that the new decomposition method will enable us to discover the real elements of an object". This prediction came true the next year.

Because sodium exists in natural Soda (soda), the word Na named soda comes from this, which means "soda" in English. The element symbol "Na" comes from the medical Latin sodium, which means "headache medicine".