Zirconium is named after the stone zirconium, which has been used by humans as jewelry for centuries. Zircon is also mentioned in the Bible, stating that it was one of the 12 precious stones worn by the high priests of Israel.

Zircon comes in a variety of beautiful colors ranging from orange to red, and colorless zircon is cut to give it an eye-catching brilliance. It is for this reason that zircon was for a long time mistaken for a soft diamond

In 1789, the German chemist Martin clarified the misconceptions about zircon by proving that it was not a diamond. By heating zircon with the reactive compound sodium hydroxide, he discovered that the two substances reacted to form an oxide. Martin believed that this oxide contained a new element. He named this new oxide zirconium oxide and this new element zirconium.

Martin was unable to extract pure zirconium at the time because of its chemical similarity to hafnium, which is often found with zirconium in zirconium ores. It was not until 35 years later, in 1824, that the Swedish chemist Bechirias first produced pure zirconium. At the time, several other chemists were also working on this project, but without success. Becilias succeeded in extracting pure zirconium by heating a mixture of potassium and potassium hexafluorozirconate in an iron tube. The black powdered zirconium from the experiment was 93% pure, and the purity of the zirconium produced by Bechilias' purification could not be improved until nearly 100 years later, when high purity zirconium was produced. Today, most zirconium is extracted from zircon (ZrSiO4) and zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) in a process known as the Kroll Process.

Zirconium derives its name from zircon, which is derived from the Persian word for "gold" (zargun). This name is said to be due to the eye-catching color of some zircon jewelry. In fact, zircon comes in a variety of colors, with red, brown, green and yellow being more common, and colorless zircon being more common in humans.