In 1967, the Soviets at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research claimed to have produced a few atoms of element-105 by bombarding ²⁴³Am with ions of ²²Ne. By 1970, an American group at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory reported positive identification of the element and suggest the name hahnium, after a German chemist, Otto Hahn. Their method was by bombardment of ²⁴⁹Cf with ions of ¹⁵N. By 1971, the same group announced the positive synthesis of the five other isotopes of hahnium.

Recently, in March of 1997, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recommended that element-105, which has been unofficially known as hahnium for about 25 years, be named dubnium in honour of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, where important contributions to the creation of transfermium elements. However, scientists may continue to use hahnium for element-105 even if the name change has gone through.

In recommending that element-105 be named dubnium, IUPAC has cast the name hahnium into oblivion. This is avoid greater confusion because an element name that has been widely used in the literature should not be reassigned to a different element.