# Is "millenial" a uniquely American term? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2018, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574 "2018-06-22T15:22:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2018, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/1 "2018-06-22T15:22:19Z")
Practically every day there’s a ‘news’ story about Millennials… “Why Millennials Don’t Tip!” or “Why So Many Millennials Are Vegan!” or “Why Millennials are Defaulting on Student Loans!” Most of these stories seem to have a negative slant. I’m sure it’s not uniquely American to group people into generations and then apply some broad characterization. What is this like in your country? ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2018, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/2 "2018-06-22T17:07:57Z")
Dialectual differences across the English speaking world are dying out, so there are actually very few terms that are country specific anymore (Witness the rise of ‘no worries’ in the US. A decade ago, it was a strange term and now it’s common vernacular.) Millennial is used in the UK and Australia and in their news sources, they are similarly to blame for pretty much all of the world’s ills. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/3 "2018-06-22T18:46:42Z")
Yes, we see stuff about those pesky millennials and generation x as well. They blame the baby-boomers for all their ills too. These words describe groups of people and are usually meant to be critical if not downright derogatory. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2018, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/4 "2018-06-22T21:31:57Z")
How about equivalent terms in other languages? Calling \*\*Nava \*\* (for Spanish). ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2018, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/5 "2018-06-22T22:17:12Z")
No such term in German, but the anglophile and digital (as we call the web-minded younger and not so young folks who have fully adapted to the digital age) faction has adapted the original term “millenial”. But other people wouldn’t have a clue. And it’s true at least for Germany that we don’t categorize generations with such catchy terms like it’s usual in the US. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2018, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/6 "2018-06-22T22:30:42Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Yes, we see stuff about those pesky millennials and generation x as well. They blame the baby-boomers for all their ills too. These words describe groups of people and are usually meant to be critical if not downright derogatory. You see stuff about Generation X? That _is_ different than the US, then. All the articles here are about Millennials and Baby Boomers. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/7 "2018-06-23T09:06:41Z")
> [@amaguri](#): > > Practically every day there’s a ‘news’ story about Millennials… “Why Millennials Don’t Tip!” or “Why So Many Millennials Are Vegan!” or “Why Millennials are Defaulting on Student Loans!” Most of these stories seem to have a negative slant. > > I’m sure it’s not uniquely American to group people into generations and then apply some broad characterization. What is this like in your country? Most cultures don’t change as quickly as America has in the last few decades, I would think. Many actively resent change and push back against it, such that generations are actively made to be similar to previous ones whenever possible… ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/8 "2018-06-23T09:22:19Z")
> [@amaguri](#): > > Practically every day there’s a ‘news’ story about Millennials… “Why Millennials Don’t Tip!” or “Why So Many Millennials Are Vegan!” or “Why Millennials are Defaulting on Student Loans!” Most of these stories seem to have a negative slant. > > I’m sure it’s not uniquely American to group people into generations and then apply some broad characterization. What is this like in your country? In China, it’s split up into decades. People will talk about 80后 (people born after 1980) and 90后 (born after 1990). ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/9 "2018-06-24T17:14:38Z")
The Financial Times (London) has frequent articles about millennials, usually on their Facebook or Twitter feeds. They’re some of the rare content that usually isn’t paywalled. I’m 99.99% sure I’ve also seen millennial articles in The Guardian (UK) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/10 "2018-06-25T07:18:09Z")
It’s a [thing](https://www.news24.com/Tags/Topics/millennials) here. Spelled [both](https://www.news24.com/Tags/Topics/millenials) ways 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/11 "2018-06-25T07:38:43Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Most cultures don’t change as quickly as America has in the last few decades, I would think. Many actively resent change and push back against it, such that generations are actively made to be similar to previous ones whenever possible… Huh? Which cultures are they then **Reply**? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/12 "2018-06-25T08:26:46Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Most cultures don’t change as quickly as America has in the last few decades, I would think. Many actively resent change and push back against it, such that generations are actively made to be similar to previous ones whenever possible… “Millenial” as an actual class of person with distinct characteristics is a fabrication of the U.S. media, and as such is probably not going to exist in the popular discourse of other (non-English speaking cultures). Or course there are terms to just refer to people born in a certain time span, but the connotations which **bob++** mentions derive from the media’s need to generate fictional narratives which give them something to talk about. After everyone has started to repeat these narratives enough they get unthinkingly taken for granted. “Millenial” is actually a meaningless term, except to refer to a person’s period of birth year. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/13 "2018-06-25T08:33:39Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > How about equivalent terms in other languages? Calling \*\*Nava \*\* (for Spanish). _Mileniales_. The term already existed to refer to those people who use any significant date to announce the end of the world, it’s just received a new definition. And as I like to point out with great success any time it comes up, “it’s just current-speak for ‘kids nowadays’ :rolleyes:”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/14 "2018-06-25T08:39:26Z")
¡Gracias! ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-millenial-a-uniquely-american-term/816574/15 "2018-06-25T14:48:20Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > You see stuff about Generation X? That _is_ different than the US, then. All the articles here are about Millennials and Baby Boomers. I assume you’re in the US. Using Google, setting it to US and English, and searching for the past year yields 304 hits for Millennials and 330 for Generation X\*. Many of them overlap, since they mention different generations. Just sayin’. \*I know the numbers seem incredibly low, so maybe my google skills are crappy. Doesn’t matter, since I searched the same way for both terms and they produced similar results.