~a column by Colleen O’Brien
It dawned on me when reading an article about Gen Xers that I did not know what a Gen Xer was.
I knew the term Baby Boomer – those born between 1946 to 1964 – because there was always a lot written about them as I was growing up.
Because I was born in 1943, I was a war baby, but there isn’t really a name for us. The Boomers got a name because after WWII there were so many of them born – a bumper crop. They are now 57 to 75 years old, and there are almost 72 million of them.
When I looked up Gen X, I learned that they were the ones born between 1965 and 1979/80, so they’re between 41 and 56 years old, and there are about 65 million of them. Both of my kids are Gen Xers.
Next comes Gen Y, sometimes called Millennials, although I’m not sure why because they were born between 1981 and 1994/96. They’re between 25 and 40 and there are 72 million of them, like the Boomers.
Sometimes those born between 1994 and 2000 are called Zillennials.
And sometimes, you’ll read about the Gen Y.1 (25 to 29 years old) and the Gen Y.2 (29 to 39). The Gen Ys are separated for purposes of consumerism – the difference between the buying behavior of a 25-year-old and a 40-year-old is significant, mostly because of the increasing income as the Ys mature. This delineation wasn’t done for the Baby Boomers, but it was early days for naming generations; they weren’t as precise.
All of these – GenY, Zillennials, Gen Y.1 and Gen Y.2 – Millennials.
Gen Zs were born between 1997 and 2012 so are 9 to 24 years old. By the time they got done, they rounded out at around 68 million.
Next is Gen A or Gen Alpha, obviously the namers of us having to start where they should have started after the Boomers, with an A. The oldest of them were born in 2012 and will go through the year 2025, their estimated number being 48 million.
From what I can gather, the referencing of generations, loosely dated as they are, is for businesses – what to market to each age group; and for bosses – how to deal with, manipulate and teach the new employees that are so much younger than the employers.
That the Boomers and Millennials get real names, not just letters, subtly makes them more interesting. Being a Gen X, a Y or a Z or an A works, but there is no pizzaz, no hint of more to their story.
So, I’m going to give them names, make them less faceless, more solid, real groups.
The Gen X doesn’t have a huge possibility to choose from because there are so few words that start with X – only a page and a third in my Webster’s – and most of the words have to do with science in such a way that the definitions are above my mental acuity. Another problem with X is that it’s pronounced as a Z except in X-ray and Xmas. I like the word Xanadu, though; has a nice ring to it. It’s the name of a place that is beautiful, from a poem by Samuel Coleridge (“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree…”). Xenophile and xenophobe are recognizable, more in use than, say, xanthochroi (meaning a white person with light hair and complexion), which would be termed racist if we gave it to the whole mob of Gen Xers. Xenophile means someone who likes things foreign; xenophobe means someone who is afraid of anything foreign. I suppose Gen Xers are of both persuasions. I’m going to call them Xanadus.
Gen Z has great possibilities, and I’m going to choose the first one that thrills me: Zanies. They might grow into zealots or Zen Buddhists. Zephyr is nice. Zombie isn’t. They’re too early to be Zoomers.
Gen A has 49 pages of words to choose from in a household dictionary, aardvark (a mammal that eats termites) to azygos (single, not being one of a pair [sounds like a synonym for widow]). Most of them won’t remain single, and I’m assuming none of them would like to be aardvarks. Gen Able? Gen Abundant? Gen Action? Gen Argonauts? Gen A-I’s? They might not like being called Artificial Intelligents.
Idle thoughts for an idle morning. It might fit in with something a reader said about another column of mine: “It’s better than writing about politics.”
