Italy is calling for a change to the international name of the unit of voltage
The Italian government has officially launched a major initiative to reform the International System of Units (SI). Rome is calling for the letter “a” to be restored to the name of the unit of electrical voltage so that it is officially called “volta” rather than “volt”—in honor of the renowned Italian physicist and inventor Alessandro Volta.
Alessio Butti, Italy’s State Secretary for Innovation, made an official appeal to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), which is globally responsible for standardizing the metric system.
The official made his statement during the G7 ministerial meeting on digital technologies in Paris, calling on the organization to immediately initiate the renaming process. According to Butti, the current use of “volt” is a historically unjust exception, since other units named after scientists fully retain their surnames (for example, the watt from Watt, the ampere from Ampère, the newton from Newton, and the pascal from Pascal). The shortening of Volta’s original surname likely occurred under the long-term influence of the English language, where words rarely end in an open vowel.
The Italian side has already developed and launched a detailed, multi-stage plan to advance this initiative:
First stage: officially changing the name of the unit of measurement from “volt” to “volta” at the domestic national level within Italy itself.
Stage Two: conducting diplomatic consultations with international institutions and securing broad support from other member states.
Stage Three: putting the final decision to a global vote during the General Conference of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, scheduled to take place in October 2026.
State Secretary Alessio Butti emphasized that for the country, this issue goes far beyond a mere linguistic debate, as it concerns the restoration of historical justice and the proper recognition of the scientific legacy of Alessandro Volta, whose creation of the world’s first electric battery in 1800 radically transformed humanity’s technological progress. In addition, this campaign has powerful symbolic significance, as in 2027 the world will mark the 200th anniversary of the death of the great Italian scientist.
This was reported by the authoritative Italian publication Corriere della Sera.
Earlier, the Armenian government approved an agreement with the EU to cease using the geographical indication “cognac.” A new name and marketing strategy will be sought for this product.
Ukraine has signed a similar agreement to abandon European geographical indications.
