People are struggling to figure out how to name the next Generation in a way that will live up to generation names of yore (both descriptive and aspirational). But before we assume that existing generation names are ideal, let’s take a hard look at them.
The Lost Generation: This one has a lot of drama and cynical glamour. Coined by Gertrude Stein’s car mechanic, it has a poetic/blue collar origin story that makes it less annoying than when New York Times columnists use it to describe current twentysomethings living in their parents’ basements. When it’s not calling you and your friends hopeless leeches on society, but instead describing people other than you, it has a cool Bermuda Triangle-ness about it, which has become only the sexier via the show Lost.
Ranking **
The Greatest Generation – This is by far the braggiest of all generation names, although they didn’t give it to themselves – Tom Brokaw coined it. Other than being braggy, it’s not terribly descriptive. Any English teacher will tell you that “great” is a pretty pointless word.
Ranking: **
G.I. Generation – This is a fairly badass name for a generation, implying that this generation does indeed deserve its own action figures – cool ones that fight, parachute and get melted by mean little boys. It seems fairly gender neutral (as in, G.I. Joe and G.I. Jane), and jumps into the same alliteration of those very characters. No one’s going to argue that this generation spent too much time watching Justin Bieber covers on YouTube.
Ranking: ***
The Silent Generation
Although columnists at the time used this to mean that the people were “unimaginative” and “withdrawn” who can blame them? Life really sucked back then.They were probably so pissed off at Hitler and having nothing to eat but potatoes that they wanted to give the whole world the silent treatment. It’s not like they could express their anger by writing negative Yelp reviews. This name, in retrospect, makes them sound austere in a way that makes us all feel frilly and frivolous.
Ranking: ***
Baby Boomers
This is by far the worst generation name. It took me forever to figure out what this meant as a kid because it sounded so stupid. It sounds more like the name of a line of Cabbage Patch Kid diapers than a term that should describe the consumerist, super-affectionate generation of credit card-lovers that would drive the economy into the ground. It also seems to describe their parents (horny biatches) more than it describes them.
Ranking: *
Generation X
This generation name is minimal, mysterious and feels directly connected to spy movies. It rented itself out easily to brands looking to work it into a jingle, and sounded pretty cool when the Spice Girls used it to sing about Pepsi. My only critique is that it started a trend of naming future generations with the succeeding letters of the alphabet.
Ranking: ****
Generation Y
While this isn’t necessarily our permanent generation name (I plan to write a Brokaw-style book in 20 years renaming us The Greatestest Generation), it seems to have settled in. While it sounds kinda chill and masculine (via Y chromosome), it does make it way too easy for people to call us Generation Why Bother.
Ranking: *
–Becky Lang, out of natural resentment at the access to technology that toddlers are about to enjoy, hopes that they will be called “Boomlets.”
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