How did the generations get their names?

Posted on April 3, 2023 by Monica Reed

There is no concrete way that generations historically get their names, because lumping everyone who’s roughly the same age together is a relatively new phenomenon.

Baby Boomers were the first named generation to exist. It all started when the Census Bureau referred to the years between 1946 and 1964, during which birthrates rocketed up from around 3 million a year to over 4 million a year, as the “Post War Baby Boom.” As the kids born in this boom started to grow into adults, ad agencies found traction by marketing their products to so-called Baby Boomers. This would be the first time a generation’s “official” name would come from a government organization.

(Video courtesy of History Channel)

Gen X-In 1964 a book called Generation X by Jane Deverson and Charles Hamblett was published. A few years later, a woman named Joan Broad bought a copy at a garage sale, her son found it, and he fell in love with the name. That son was Billy Idol, according to his memoir, “ He felt the name projected the many possibilities that came with presenting our generation’s feelings and thoughts.” The band Generation X would begin Billy Idol’s career.
But the name Generation X wouldn’t become associated with a wide group of people until 1991. That’s the year Douglas Coupland’s Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture was released.

(Video courtesy of FutureNow)

Millennials-What comes after Generation X? Generation Y, obviously. That was the logic behind several newspaper columns.
In 1991 authors Neil Howe and William Strauss wrote Generations, which included a discussion about the coming Millennial. According to Forbes, they felt members of this generation were graduating high school in 2000—and everyone was focusing on the coming date—Millennials seemed a natural fit.

(Video courtesy of Alux.com)

Gen Z-The generation currently being born and growing up—the term Generation Z has often been used as a placeholder, though the Pew Research Center recently redefined them as Post-Millennials. I personally think Gen Z will stick!