 According to IUPAC recommendations , the discoverer ( s ) of a new element has the right to suggest a name . After the discovery of flerovium and livermorium was recognized by IUPAC on 1 June 2011 , IUPAC asked the discovery team at the JINR to suggest permanent names for those two elements . The Dubna team chose to name element 114 flerovium ( symbol Fl ) , after the Russian Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions ( FLNR ) , named after the Soviet physicist Georgy Flyorov ( also spelled Flerov ) ; earlier reports claim the element name was directly proposed to honour Flerov . In accordance with the proposal received from the discoverers IUPAC officially named flerovium after the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions ( an older name for the JINR ) , not after Flyorov himself . Flyorov is known for writing to Stalin in April 1942 and pointing out the silence in scientific journals in the field of nuclear fission in the United States , Great Britain , and Germany . Flyorov deduced that this research must have become classified information in those countries . Flyorov 's work and urgings led to the development of the USSR 's own atomic bomb project . 
