In the IUPAC nomenclature of carboxylic acids, we learned that their salts are named by replacing the suffix “ic acid” or “oic acid” with “ate”. For example, sodium acetate, potassium butyrate, etc.

The good news is that esters follow the same pattern, and instead of the metal ion, we use the alkyl group connected to the RCO (acyl) fragment.

For example:

The substituents are numbered based on the position of the COOR group and placed in alphabetical order:

Naming Esters on a Ring 

To name an ester on a ring, we need to refer to the corresponding carboxylic acid. For example, the suffix of cyclopentanecarboxylic acid is changed to carboxy”late” and the alkyl group is added at the beginning:  

If substituents are also present, the numbering starts from the carbon connected to the COOH group and goes in the direction that minimizes the numbering of the substituents:

Below are some practice examples for naming carboxylic acids and their different derivatives.