In 1866 , the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann came up with a system for naming hydrocarbons . The suffixes - ane , - ene , - ine , - one , and - une were used to call the hydrocarbons with 0 , 2 , 4 , 6 , and 8 fewer hydrogen atoms than the alkane it came from . In 1866 , the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann proposed a system of hydrocarbon nomenclature in which the suffixes - ane , - ene , - ine , - one , and - une were used to denote the hydrocarbons with 0 , 2 , 4 , 6 , and 8 fewer hydrogens than their parent alkane .