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Why do many simple carboxylic acids have common names instead of IUPAC names?

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oxidation of alcohols — carboxylic acid Alcohols may be oxidized to give aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids. The oxidation of organic compounds generally increases the number of bonds from carbon to oxygen, and it may decrease the number of bonds to hydrogen.

Many simple carboxylic acids are referred to by common names because these names predate the development of systematic IUPAC nomenclature. When these compounds were first isolated from biological sources, their structural formulas were often unknown, leading scientists to name them based on their origins.1

For example, butyric acid was named after the Latin word butyrum, meaning "butter," as it was first obtained from that source. Similarly, long-chain carboxylic acids were historically isolated from fats, which typically contain an even number of carbon atoms because biological synthesis processes assemble these molecules in two-carbon units. Consequently, acids with an odd number of carbon atoms greater than nine generally lack these traditional common names.1

While IUPAC names provide a systematic way to identify compounds based on their longest carbon chain and functional groups, the historical common names remain in widespread use due to their long-standing presence in scientific literature and industry.1