yuánzì Chinese characters of the chemical elements
炭

炭 tàn

“charcoal; coal; carbon”

On its own, an ordinary character; Cantonese taan3. Readings and gloss from the Unicode Unihan database.

Carries Carbon

石 stone → solid non-metal
+
炭 tàn
=
碳 tàn · C 6

Not a plain transliteration: the component was chosen for its meaning, or the name is older than the system.

The element keeps the component’s reading exactly.