hydrogen comes from the Greeks roots hydro and gennes. hydro means water and gennes means generates. Answer 2 Hydrogen was discovered by Henry Cavendish at 1766 in London, England. Origin of name: from the Greek words  hydro  and genes  meaning  water  and  generator .Hydrogen is called also Protium as the hydrogen nucleus includes one proton and does not include any neutron.he origin of the word hydrogen is late 18th century, coined in French from Greek hudro 'water' + gen-.