When Generations Get Their Names

Focus on the post-Gen Z crowd, not the babies.

Some marketing group, in a pretty successful stunt, has decided that that the generation after Gen Z is done being born and the next one will start with the 2025 babies. The post-Gen Zers are called Generation Alpha, apparently, and the next one will uncreatively be called Beta.

When did we start doing this all wrong? You don’t name a generation until its members start turning into adults and their bosses start complaining about them.

Here’s proof from Google NGRAM:

I’m a Millennial on the earlier side (1984) and didn’t start hearing us called that until my 20s. The older Xers were similarly in their 20s when Nirvana and Clerks hit and the name took off. By this point a generation has developed enough of an identity to have some good stereotypes associated with them. When you start too early you end up with lameness like Alpha and Beta. Even Gen Z we probably settled on a little soon.

I hereby strike the last two from the record. We can rename the post-Gen Zers in the 2030s and the kids being born today around 2050.

Relatedly, see my review of Jean Twenge’s interesting book Generations here.