how do the names of covalent compounds differ from the names of ionic compounds?

In many cases they don't. NaCl is sodium chloride an ionic compound. SF6 is sulfur hexafluride, a covalent compound.

The names of covalent compounds differ from the names of ionic compounds due to the different ways in which covalent and ionic bonding occurs.

To understand the difference in naming, we first need to understand the nature of covalent and ionic bonds:

1. Covalent Compounds: In covalent compounds, atoms share electrons to form bonds. This type of bonding typically occurs between nonmetals. The shared electrons create a stable arrangement of electron pairs, known as a molecule.

2. Ionic Compounds: In ionic compounds, there is a transfer of electrons from one atom (typically a metal) to another atom (typically a nonmetal). This transfer results in the formation of positively charged ions (cations) and negatively charged ions (anions), which are held together by electrostatic attraction.

Now, let's look at how the names of covalent and ionic compounds differ:

1. Covalent Compounds:
a) Molecular Naming: Covalent compounds are named using prefixes to indicate the number of atoms present in the molecule. For example, in carbon dioxide (CO2), "di-" represents two oxygen atoms. Another example is sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), where "hexa-" indicates six atoms of fluorine.
b) Name endings: Covalent compound names generally end in "-ide" for the second element. For instance, in hydrogen chloride (HCl), "chlor-" reflects the chlorine atom.

2. Ionic Compounds:
a) Cation and Anion: Ionic compounds consist of cations and anions. The cation comes first in the name and is named as the metal element. For example, Na+ is the sodium cation in sodium chloride.
b) Name endings: The name of the anion, typically a nonmetal, carries an "-ide" ending. For example, Cl- is named as chloride in sodium chloride.
c) Ionic Charges: If an element can form multiple cations, the charge is indicated using Roman numerals in parentheses. For example, iron can form two different cations, Fe2+ and Fe3+, so you have iron(II) chloride (FeCl2) and iron(III) chloride (FeCl3).

To summarize, covalent compounds are named using prefixes to indicate the number of atoms and end in "-ide," while ionic compounds are named by combining the metal name (cation) and nonmetal name (anion) with appropriate endings and indicating the ionic charges.