钐是由法国化学家保罗·埃米尔·勒科克·德布瓦博德兰(Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran)于1879年发现的,并以其發現來源铌钇矿(英语:Samarskite)(Samarskite)命名。该矿物本身的名字是早先以一位俄罗斯矿务官员瓦西里-萨马尔斯基-别克霍夫茨上校(Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets)之名所命名的,他因此间接成为第一个名字被用来命名化学元素的人。
^Yttrium and all lanthanides except Ce and Pm have been observed in the oxidation state 0 in bis(1,3,5-tri-t-butylbenzene) complexes, see Cloke, F. Geoffrey N. Zero Oxidation State Compounds of Scandium, Yttrium, and the Lanthanides. Chem. Soc. Rev. 1993, 22: 17–24. doi:10.1039/CS9932200017. and Arnold, Polly L.; Petrukhina, Marina A.; Bochenkov, Vladimir E.; Shabatina, Tatyana I.; Zagorskii, Vyacheslav V.; Cloke. Arene complexation of Sm, Eu, Tm and Yb atoms: a variable temperature spectroscopic investigation. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry. 2003-12-15, 688 (1–2): 49–55. doi:10.1016/j.jorganchem.2003.08.028.
^SmB6- cluster anion has been reported and contains Sm in rare oxidation state of +1; see Paul, J. Robinson; Xinxing, Zhang; Tyrel, McQueen; Kit, H. Bowen; Anastassia, N. Alexandrova. SmB6– Cluster Anion: Covalency Involving f Orbitals. J. Phys. Chem. A 2017, 121, 8, 1849–1854. 2017, 121 (8): 1849–1854 [2022-08-29]. (原始内容存档于2022-09-25)..