Final answer:
HNO₃ is correctly named nitric acid, which follows the nomenclature rule that when an acid's anion ends in -ate, the acid name is the root of the anion with an -ic ending.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct name for HNO₃ is nitric acid. This is because, according to nomenclature rules in chemistry, the anion (negative ion) in this compound, NO₃, is named nitrate, and when an acid's anion ends with -ate, the acid name is the root of the anion followed by the suffix -ic. Therefore, HNO₃, which contains the nitrate ion, is named nitric acid.
Other wrong answers can be dismissed based on the rules of nomenclature: Nitrous acid refers to HNO₂, hydrogen nitrate isn't an accepted name in IUPAC nomenclature for acids, and hydrogen nitrite would relate to an acid with nitrite (NO₂⁻) ion, which would instead be called nitrous acid.