It wasn't Wilhelm who named chlorine, it was Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a Swedish chemist. He discovered the element in 1774, but he called it "dephlogisticated marine acid".

The name "chlorine" comes from the Greek word "chloros", which means "greenish-yellow". This refers to the color of chlorine gas, which was a striking characteristic that Scheele observed during his experiments.

It wasn't until 1810 that Humphry Davy, an English chemist, formally named the element "chlorine" after recognizing its unique properties and confirming it as a distinct element.