Chemistry experience sought.

You are talking about inorganic compounds, right?
The Stock system is used to name ionic inorganic compounds, that exist in various stoichiometric ratios. like Iron chloride exists as FeCl2 and FeCl3 (iron dichloride and iron trichloride). The Stock system adds the oxidation state of the elements, placing a Roman numeral after the element's name.

So you would have iron (II) chloride and iron (III) chloride.

I have no idea what exactly the "old nomenclature system" should be, I think this is referring to the names "iron dichloride" and "iron trichloride"...

I hope this will help!

Glad you picked up on that, brunt. All I could think of was IUPAC nomenclature for naming organic compounds, such as 2,2,4,trimethylpentane for what the gas companies like to call iso-octane.

I must admit, I did a google search...
I am an organic chemist, so I am not very familiar with inorganic chemistry (anymore, I'd finished my diploma more than 4 years ago).

It's funny, you use these nomenclatures regularly, but you'd never thought about why something was named that way...

info resource for your compound question
Wilso, You might want to check the following Google site for info:

"http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=Compounds+using+nomenclature+system+and+stock+system&spell=1

BBB

Boy, you guys are smart. I feel so small in here.

Still none of them make it completely clear. This is what I've managed so far.

One of my questions is naming CuO. The first thing I see is copper oxide. Knowing that the valence of O is 2- tells me that the Cu had to be 2+ so that makes it Copper(II) Oxide.

There was also a naming system not as common now which suffixed the latin name of the element with "ous" for the lower valence state and "ic" for the higher state. Which in this case would make it Cupric Oxide.

So I've got 3 names now and I"m only looking for 2. Hopefully 2 of them are correct.

One good reference is the "Handbook of Chemistry and Physics".

Also, is this a question on organic or inorganic chemistry?

Inorganic.

I've also asked one of the chemical engineers at work and one of the lab demonstrator's at the uni. They weren't sure either. I haven't had the chance to ask an academic yet.

The answers were cupric oxide (old) and copper(II) oxide (stock)

Stock Naming System
I'm a newbie too, lol. I'm also having trouble figuring out what my Chem teacher wants me to do...I get that if you have something like C2O (2 as a subscript) then the Stock Naming System makes it: Carbon II Oxide, but what if you have something like CaCO3 (subscript 3)?

I'd appreciate the help. Thanks!

Welcome, Bre.
C2O doesn't exist--are you sure you didn't miss a letter (e.g. CuO)?
Regarding CaCO3, CO3 is carbonate, a common organic anion with a net negative charge of 2. Your teacher might be trying to see if you recognize ions made up of more than one atom--e.g. CO3 = carbonate, NO3 = nitrate, NO2 = nitrite, etc.