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What should a generation be called?
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- Carrie Weisman
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- The Lost Generation: Born 1883-1910. The idea of naming each generation didn't take hold until the 20th century when author Gertrude Stein began referring to people who came of age during the First World War as "The Lost Generation."
- The Greatest Generation (GI Generation): Born 1901–1927. The next generation would not receive their designation until 1991 when Howe and Strauss hit the scene.
- The Silent Generation: Born 1928 to 1945. Time first introduced the term "Silent Generation" in a 1951 article that read, "By comparison with the Flaming Youth of their fathers and mothers, today's younger generation is a still, small flame.
- The Baby Boomer Generation: Born 1946 to 1964. The Baby Boomer Generation are the individuals born during the U.S. baby boom that followed World War II.
- Overview
- Generations of the past
- Generations of the future
- Microgenerations
Generations as we know them today are a relatively recent social construct. In fact, although the names of generations and their associations are widely known and repeated throughout society and especially in the media, there is no official organization that determines what a generation should be called or what years it encompasses. The process tends to be more of a disorderly journey toward social consensus. On top of that, different countries have different collective experiences and delineate and define their generations differently. In short, it’s far from an exact science.
Despite all that, does the “OK boomer” meme still make you feel just a little bit indignant? Are you entirely over headlines that declare yet another thing that “millennials have ruined”? It’s just human nature. Humans are social creatures, and we like to categorize things, especially ourselves. While we can never fully capture with data what individuals’ lives were or are like, sometimes it can be fun to take a broad look at the events, trends, and demographics that have shaped our lives in particular ways. Knowing the first Moon landing happened is one thing; having watched it on TV is a different experience entirely. Getting your first iPhone at 16 is very different from getting it at 61.
The Lost Generation is generally considered to be the first named generation of Americans. The term was originally used to describe a particular zeitgeist in writing; it later became a more encompassing term to discuss the cohort of people born at the turn of the 20th century. The generation that came afterward, the Greatest Generation, was named m...
Generation Alpha is the working name for the newest generation of Americans, still being born today. We can only speculate about what their lives will be like.
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Some people maintain that being born on the cusp of a generation adds a uniqueness to their experience. For this reason, some names have been created to identify these smaller groups:
•Generation Jones (1954–65), the youngest of the baby boomers. This term was largely the idea of Jonathan Pontell, an entrepreneur born in 1958, who contends that the experience of those who came of age in the 1970s was stuck between the oft-cited optimism of the boomers and the cynicism of Generation X.
•Xennials (1977–83), bridging the gap between Generation X and millennials. Although their lives were marked by the rise of the Internet and the various technologies that sprung from it, they experienced these changes later in life, perhaps in college or young adulthood. They also were entering the job market largely before the Great Recession of 2007–09 that shaped much of the millennial experience.
•Zillennials (1993–98), bridging the gap between millennials and Generation Z. In the era of rapidly changing memes and trends resulting from the proliferation of the Internet, technology, and social networking, zillennials find they relate to both millennial and Gen Z interests but not to as great a degree as either generation. They remember a time before high-speed Internet and smartphones, but some of them just barely do.
- Alison Eldridge
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- Defining Generation Names and Dates. A generation is a group of people born at roughly the same time. They're usually grouped by a 20-year time interval, says Deborah Carr, PhD, professor and chair of the sociology department of Boston University and author of Golden Years?
- The Greatest Generation (GI Generation): Born 1901–1927. This generation lived through the Great Depression and then went off to fight in World War II. Notably, they popularized jazz and swing music, but don't be fooled by the wild provocations of the cultural preferences of the times.
- The Silent Generation: Born 1928–1945. The silent generation famously got their name for being so conformist that they were silent through the MacCarthy era when the fear of Communism swept the country.
- Baby Boom Generation: Born 1946–1964. Gen Z may think of Baby Boomers as their out-of-touch grandparents (as in "OK, Boomer"), but this generation actually had a wild youth we often don't talk about.
Generation Name: Births Start: Births End: Youngest Age Today* Oldest Age Today* The Lost Generation The Generation of 1914: 1890: 1915: 109: 134: The Interbellum Generation: 1901: 1913: 111: 123: The Greatest Generation: 1910: 1924: 100: 114: The Silent Generation: 1925: 1945: 79: 99: Baby Boomer Generation: 1946: 1964: 60: 78: Generation X ...
Sep 1, 2023 · Learn the names and birth years of different generations, from the Greatest Generation to Generation Alpha. Find out the characteristics, famous representatives and technology trends of each generation.
Apr 27, 2024 · It can be hard to find the lines between Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, and Gen Z, but here's what the generation names are, and when they begin and end.
Apr 17, 2024 · Learn the names and years of different generations, from the Greatest to Generation Alpha, and their defining features and events. Find out what generation you are and how it shapes your identity and outlook.
