New Generational Nicknames
The idea that the people who make up a generation share certain attributes dates back to the mid-19th century, and most cohorts from even before that time have been given retroactive nicknames. We didn’t become obsessed with the labels until late in the 20th century.
The woman who should perhaps be given credit for starting the trend was novelist Gertrude Stein, who reportedly first coined the term the Lost Generation to describe the people who were born roughly between 1880 and 1900 and who had lived through World War I. That phrasing was popularized by Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises, the epigraph for which quotes Stein saying, “You are all a lost generation.”
From these minor beginnings, we now have generational categories that seem to define exactly who people are based exclusively on when they were born. They’re sort of like astrological signs, casting individuals into large groupings in some sort of mystical horseshit to explain why someone born in July is aggressive or someone born in February is elusive.
Greatest Generation: Born 1901-1924.
Silent Generation: Born 1925-1945.
Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964.
Generation X: Born 1965-1980.
Millennials: Born 1981-1996.
Generation Z: Born 1997-2012.
Generation Alpha: Born 2013-2025.
Using this list a few observations can be made:
The label maker became stunted after the Baby Boomers. Generation X sounds cool but is really only a definer of a random generation rather than something specific about the cohort. Following it up with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, it loses its cool.
Each subsequent generation is shortened. The Greatest Generation is twenty-three years, Gen X is fifteen years, and Gen Alpha is only twelve years.
This task of marking each generation is about the replacement of one to the next, the obsolescence of the old and the next group coming up to bat.
From a macro view, it seems a defining difference is that for each generation, the future looked brighter in the past.
I’d suggest the following list feels more in tune with the reality of each generation and recognizes a consistent twenty year gap per moniker:
The Lost Generation: Born 1900-1920.
The Nazi Killers: Born 1921-1941.
Rock and Rollers: Born 1942-1962.
Cynics and Slackers: Born 1963-1983.
The Internet Generation: Born 1984-2004.
Generation Screen: Born 2005-2025.