Generational Names in the United States

Generational Names in the United States Generations in the United States are defined as social groups of people born around the same time who share similar cultural traits, values, and preferences. In the U.S. today, many people readily identify themselves as Millennials, Xers, or Boomers. But these generational names are a fairly recent cultural phenomenon and they vary depending on the source. The History of Naming Generations Historians generally agree that the naming of generations began in the 20th-century. Gertrude Stein is considered the first to have done so. She bestowed the title of Lost Generation on those who had been born around the turn of the century and bore the brunt of service during World War I. In the epigram to Ernest Hemingways The Sun Also Rises, published in 1926, Stein wrote, You are all a lost generation. Generational theorists Neil Howe and William Strauss are generally credited with identifying and naming the 20th-century generations in the U.S. with their 1991 study Generations. In it, they identified the generation that fought World War II as the G.I. (for Government Issue) Generation. But less than a decade later, Tom Brokaw published The Greatest Generation, a best-selling cultural history of the Great Depression and World War II, and that namesake stuck. Canadian author Douglas Coupland, born in 1961 at the tail end of the Baby Boom, is credited with naming the generation that followed him. Couplands 1991 book Generation X: Tales For an Accelerated Culture, and later works chronicled the lives of 20-somethings and came to be seen by some as defining that eras young. Did You Know? Generational theorists Neil Howe and William Strauss suggested the name Thirteeners (for the 13th generation born since the American Revolution) for Generation X, but the term never caught on. Credit for naming the generations that followed Generation X is less clear. In the early 1990s, the children following Generation X were often referred to as Generation Y by media outlets like Advertising Age, which is credited with first using the term in 1993. But by the mid-90s, as buzz about the turn of the century grew, this generation was more often referred to as Millennials, a term Howe and Strauss first used in their book. The name for the most recent generation varies even more. Some prefer Generation Z, continuing the alphabetical trend begun with Generation X, while others prefer buzzier titles like Centennials or the iGeneration. Generation Names While some generations are known by one name only, such as the Baby Boomers, names for other generations is a matter of some dispute among experts.   Neil Howe and William Strauss define recent generational cohorts in the U.S. this way: 2000 to present: New Silent Generation or Generation Z1980 to 2000: Millennials or Generation Y1965 to 1979: Thirteeners or Generation X1946 to 1964:  Baby Boomers1925 to 1945: Silent Generation1900 to 1924: G.I. Generation The Population Reference Bureau  provides an alternate listing and chronology of generational names in the United States: 1983 to 2001: New Boomers1965 to 1982: Generation X1946 to 1964: Baby Boomers1929 to 1945: Lucky Few1909 to 1928: Good Warriors1890 to 1908: Hard Timers1871 to 1889: New Worlders The Center for Generational Kinetics lists the following five generations who are currently active in Americas economy and workforce: 1996 to present: Gen Z,  iGen, or Centennials1977 to 1995:  Millennials  or Gen Y1965 to 1976: Generation X1946 to 1964: Baby Boomers1945 and before: Traditionalists or Silent Generation Naming Generations Outside the United States Its worth remembering that the concept of social generations like these is largely a Western notion and that generational names are often influenced by local or regional events. In South Africa, for example, people born after the end of apartheid in 1994 are referred to as the Born-Free Generation. Romanians born after the collapse of communism in 1989 are sometimes called the Revolution Generation.   Sources Brokaw, Tom. The Greatest Generation. 1st Edition, Kindle Edition, Random House, February 23, 2000. Carlson, Elwood. 20th-Century U.S. Generations. Population Reference Bureau, March 4, 2009. Coupland, Douglas. Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Paperback, St. Martins Griffin, March 15, 1991. Generational Breakdown: Info About All of the Generations. The Center for Generational Kinetics, 2016. Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway Library Edition, Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition, Scribner, July 25, 2002. Howe, Neil. Generations: The History of Americas Future, 1584 to 2069. William Strauss, Paperback, Reprint edition, Quill, September 30, 1992.