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Because the British were the most active in the early years, British names are predominant in the geological lexicon. Devonian is of course from the English county of Devon. Cambrian comes from the Roman name for Wales, while Ordovician and Silurian recall ancient Welsh tribes, the Ordovices and Silures. But with the rise of geological prospecting elsewhere, names began to creep in from all over. Jurassic refers to the Jura Mountains on the border of France and Switzerland. Permian recalls the former Russian province of Perm in the Ural Mountains. For Cretaceous (from the Latin for "chalk") we are indebted to a Belgian geologist with the perky name of J. J. d'Omalius d'Halloy.
在這門學科的早期，英國人是最活躍的，因此在地質詞語中英國的名稱占了絕大部分。泥盆系（即德文系）當然源自英格蘭的德文郡。寒武紀來自羅馬人對威爾士的叫法，而奧陶紀和志留紀使人想起了古代的威爾士人部落：奧陶人和志留人。但是，隨著地質學后來在其他地方的崛起，世界各地的名稱漸漸出現。侏羅紀跟法國和瑞士交界處的侏羅山有關。二疊紀使人想起俄羅斯烏拉爾山脈里的彼爾姆，而白堊紀（源自拉丁文白堊）是由一位比利時地質學家命名的，他自己也有個漂亮的名字，叫做J.J.德奧馬利馬斯·德霍洛伊。
Originally, geological history was divided into four spans of time: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. The system was too neat to last, and soon geologists were contributing additional divisions while eliminating others. Primary and secondary fell out of use altogether, while quaternary was discarded by some but kept by others. Today only tertiary remains as a common designation everywhere, even though it no longer represents a third period of anything.
原先，地質史分為4個時期：第一紀、第二紀、第三紀和第四紀。這個體系過于簡單，因此壽命不太長。地質學家很快就用新的劃分方法來替代這種劃分方法。第一紀和第二紀已經完全不用，第四紀有的人已經不用，但有的人仍然在用。今天，只有第三紀還在廣泛使用，雖然已經不代表第三紀任何東西。
