Regrettably our American cousins are in the right on this point, as with Aluminium.
It was not, however until much later that aluminium began to be thought as a metal separate and self contained for use such as other ferrous and non ferrous metals. In 1761 de Morveau proposed the name "alumine" for the base in alum. Later yet, in 1807, Davy proposed the name alumium for the metal, undiscovered at that time, and later agreed to change it to aluminum.
Shortly thereafter, the name aluminium was adopted by IUPAC to conform with the "ium" ending of most elements. Aluminium is the IUPAC spelling and therefore the international standard.
Aluminium was also the accepted spelling in the U.S.A. until 1925, at which time the American Chemical Society decided to revert back to aluminum, and to this day Americans still refer to aluminium as "aluminum".
ahem....
