Hi,

I believe that aluminum (the Canadian/American version) was the original name for the element. However, it was noted that this did not fit the convention for naming elements (plutonium, uranium, etc; which is based on Greek or Latin, I'm not sure which) and so it was changed to aluminium. But Canadians and Americans maintained the original while most (all?) other English speaking countries changed. I know in NZ it's aluminium, and I think Australia uses aluminium as well.

- Jeff