Age is just a number, but it’s also the single factor that determines which generation you fall into. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like — all that matters is the year you were born. Centenarians, those born between 1901 and 1924, are members of the Greatest Generation. They are followed by the Silent Generation (1925 to 1945), baby boomers (1946 to 1964), Generation X (1965 to 1980), millennials/Gen Y (1981 to 1996), Gen Z (1997 to 2012), and the current cohort being born, Generation Alpha. These terms didn’t come out of thin air, so let’s take a look at how they were adopted to be used as global shorthand for everyone born within certain years. (Now that’s a successful marketing campaign.)
The term “Greatest Generation” was adopted for those born in the first quarter of the 20th century, who lived through the Great Depression and later were critical in helping to win World War II. Members of the Silent Generation likely earned their name for their tendency to be more content to live quiet private lives than to speak out against the government and authority. Baby boomers were named for the skyrocketing birth rates in the years after World War II, attributed to positive feelings and economic prosperity.
Then come Generations X, Y, Z, and Alpha. The term “Generation X” was coined in a 1987 article for Vancouver Magazine by novelist Douglas Coupland, who used the “X” to denote the group’s apathetic societal views. Generation Y followed, though members of this group are now known as millennials. The term “millennial” was coined in a groundbreaking sociological text called Generations, by William Strauss and Neil Howe. While written in 1991, the book used the term “millennial” to refer to the fact that many people born during this generation would reach adulthood around the turn of the new millennium. Generation Z’s name, meanwhile, largely has to do with the fact that “Z” comes after “Y” in the alphabet. The term “zoomer” has been tossed around (calling back to the baby boomers), but that moniker doesn’t seem to have lasting power. Most recently, “Generation Alpha” was coined by sociologist Mark McCrindle to describe a “new, positive beginning.” The last year of Gen Alpha’s birth is 2025, so if the naming patterns hold, we might see the first members of Generation Beta in 2025.
