As we are halfway thru this decade now.....

[Miss Mary]

.....I'd like to know if we have a name for it yet!!!

Anyone know if a name/nic for this decade - 2000-2010 - has been declared yet?

Thanks!!!

Mary

[Brent]

My dad says the Naughts.

I don't like it, but I cannot come up with an alternative.

Nothing official that I know of.

[Miss Mary]

Brent - I've heard of the naughts or the ought's. I don't like either!

The no-name/nic decade is more like it!!

Wonder what people called the 1900-1910 time period?

Mary

[Brent]

Wonder what people called the 1900-1910 time period?

Mary

The 1900's?

The 2000's just doesn't sound right.

[Miss Mary]

Mmmm, yeah the 1900's just rolls off the tongue so easily. Must be that nineteen part. The two thousand's just doesn't sound the same!!!

Brent, you just edited your post and added the last part about the 2000's not sounding the same. GMTA!!!

Mary

[Miss Mary]

Hey I googled this dilemma and found this page:

http://members.cox.net/mathmistakes/decade.htm

What Do We Call This Decade Anyways?

This month's topic is not that interesting, but it is a curious problem with ordinal numbers, a shortcoming of language that challenges us all. Just what exactly do we call this decade?

The problem first came to my attention when a local radio station programmed with Clear Channel's popular "Mix" format (practically every major market in the US has such a channel) changed their slogan from "The Best of the '70s, '80s, and 90's" to "The Best of the 80's, 90's, and Today".

Apparently the slogan writers have no idea what to call this decade spanning 2000-2009. They are not alone. This month we ring in 2003, the fourth year of the decade, and still we have no consensus on what we should call the decade we are living in. 

For pretty much most of our lives we have had the ordinals to tell us what decade we are in. When we hear a decade we are reminded of the music and styles of that decade. Every time I here about the 50's (a decade I did not exist in) I picture cars with fins, poodle skirts, and Rock-a-Billy music. Then I hear about the 80's (a decade I did live through) I picture new-wave music, pastel "Alligator" shirts, and the hairdo sported by the lead singer of "A Flock of Seagulls". We all seem to have our own internal representation of all the 20th century decades from the "Roaring 20's" to the "Dot Com 90's"

Without a name, this decade could lack any identity. So, we need to give it some kind of name. Here are eight possible suggestions:

The Two Thousands (2000's) - Seems obvious when you think about it, and I have seen it used in some places already, but not exactly the most mathematically sound, since technically the years 2000-2999 could all be called the 2000's as well.

The Ohs (0's) - Nice short and simple, has a bit of a street slang quality to it. May take hold better after this decade is over, like "Hey remember back in the Ohs when the only thing we worried about was insane terrorists? Life was a lot simpler back in the Ohs."

The Zeros - Not quite as cool sounding but at least it is accurate. May take hold better in the future as well as in: "Look at that woman in the super low jeans, she is so stuck in the zeros."

The Oughts - This seems to be the popular way that people who lived in the 1900's refer to that decade. "The Spanish American War ended about ought-two" could easily change to "Brittany Spears career ended about ought-two"

The Naughts - Sticking with the 0's theme it might seem more appropriate to call this decade the Naught decade, a good pun on the "Not" decade, which is appropriate considering how badly this decade has gone so far.

The Oh-Ohs (00's) - A better pun than even "The Naughts". This one is my favorite.

"The Turn of the Century/Millennium" - This is another borrowed from the 1900's. It is pretty much a give that any late 20th century author who used the phrase "Back around the turn of the century", they were referring to some time between 1900 and 1910. Some convention like this could eventually become popular.

The (insert adjective or noun) Decade - Sometimes people refer to the 70's as the "Me" decade, and pretty much everyone understands what that means. Maybe someone will coin a good phrase that sums up this decade, and it will gain popular use. "The Terrorism Decade" seems obvious, but it is too dull and sad to really catch on. Between the tight security at airports and government buildings, the trade in personal information, the decline in privacy, the increase in corporate spying on their own employees, I am kind of inclined to offer "The Cavity Search Decade" as a suggestion. It is still too early in the decade to really decide on a definitive description.

Any other suggestions? I think we need to decide on something before we get to the 10's.

Here's a suggestion from reader Dermot:

Hey,
This decade should be called the "Naughties".
Seems obvious enough to me.
Lead to -> "That Naughty Show"

________________________

Oops, I was wrong about the exact years - it's 2000 to 2009.....
Mary

[Stormsfury]

I got one! I got one! ...

(more for me on a personal note)

How's about the "decade that blows chunks"? ... 'cuz for the last 4 years, it's really been a personal nightmare.

SF

[GulfBreezer]

Depending on how the next five years go worldwide, I think we can all agree that this has been a decade (so far) of tragedies and natural disasters. Wars, Tsunamis, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Terrorist Attacks.....I sure hope we have seen the worst of it but something tells me there is more to come.

[Miss Mary]

Sandi and Mike - yep, personal and national wise, even global now, it's been a rather tragic decade. Maybe we can call it the sad decade? We had a 'me' decade once. It could work.

Mary

[James]

The 'me' decade? Was that the 1980's?

[Yankeegirl]

I would have to agree with the idea of this being a "depressed decade" ... Since the year 2000 showed its ugly face, such terrible things have occured, natural and personal. As for me, a few things that are positive have come in the "new millenium" such as my baby, born Sept of 2003.. Bad has out weighed good, but things here have finally started to turn around for the better! So I hope that the rest of this decade balances out, and it was just trying to "find itself" in the early years of the 2000's...


You guys have a Happy and Positive New Year!



~Lisa

[Miss Mary]

No I think the me decade was the 70s. I'll look it up.

Mary

Edit - seems we're both right! So many links come up when you google "me decade", some refer to the 70s, while other call the 80s the Me! Me! Me! decade. Then apparently there's a band called The Me Decade, to further complicate the search!!!

[kevin]

This decade hasn't been that optimistic has it? Tragedies happened in the 90's, in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.. but we were more insulated I think in the national mindset. =\

I say the oh's.

[Brent]

This decade hasn't been that optimistic has it? Tragedies happened in the 90's, in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.. but we were more insulated I think in the national mindset. =\

I say the oh's.

But that happened elsewhere... that was the mindset in the 80's and 90's. September 11th brought it home.

[streetsoldier]

I think the "Oh-Oh's" would be appropriate....the past four years have become a litany of "Oh, Oh!!"s...

[GalvestonDuck]

How 'bout the "2K's (Two Kays)," short for the Y2K years?

Not my idea, but different IMO. Found it here: http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story ... 80611.html

[j]

No I think the me decade was the 70s. I'll look it up.

Mary

Edit - seems we're both right! So many links come up when you google "me decade", some refer to the 70s, while other call the 80s the Me! Me! Me! decade. Then apparently there's a band called The Me Decade, to further complicate the search!!!

The 70's "Me" ????? can't be. We were an extension of the 60's..free love, peace, halter tops.

I've had teenagers in the 90's. They define the "me" generation.

[Miss Mary]

j - I tell my kids all the time, if I ever expected the world to revolve around me back when I was a teen, I would have been smacked across the face! Not that my parents did that sort of thing, but it would have crossed their minds had I voiced my true opinions back then (that I mostly thought there were clueless and from the planet Mars!).

Kids today get away with way too much. We do set boundaries for our kids, all the time. But their entire collective way of thinking isn't quite the way we thought at their age!

Oh no, do I sound like my parents did? LOL

Who the heck knows what the 'me' decade is really. I hope to get to the library later today. I'll look it up - the old fashioned way, in an Encyclopedia!!!

Mary

[kevin]

Huh! My parents were part of an insincere fashion fad of peace and prosperity, equality and goodwill... but they sold out to be money loving, toy seeking, job scheming people.

Good consistency there, the bar is really high now.

[GalvestonDuck]

I found references to both the 70's and the 80's as "The Me Decade."

Here's the best, most informative link I've found so far:
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decades.html

I'm not going to quote anything because it'll take at least a week to get through the entire site and all the links within it.

Have a blast!