Yes! Jeez! I can’t believe I had to go 28 posts deep into this thread before finding someone sensible. 
“Two thousands” sounds way better than any phrase including the ridiculous terms aughts, ohs, zeros, and naughts.
Say it with me people: two thousands.
But, isn’t that more useful for describing the entire century? The “eighteen hundreds” refers to all of the 19th century, not just the first decade, after all.
I was calling it the “double-oughts,” but then I saw Cervaise’s “oh-oh’s” idea. Much cooler.
But “nineteen-hundreds” ties roughly with “turn of the century” and (in Anglophone circles) “Edwardian” for denoting 190x.
Nevertheless, it will take a century for the “two thousands” to become ambiguous. Why worry now?
Furthermore, the “twenty-first century” is already universally accepted as the name of this hundred years, and the “third millenium” for this thousand. Future DJs will almost certainly refer to the hits of the “eighties,” “nineties,” and “two thousands.” Future portrayals of the two thousands, however, may include characters dating themselves by refering to the “oughts.” The holonovel audiences will chuckle.
And lastly, to polish off my insomnia, let me air a few inevitable but minor points. On December Thirty-first, Two thousand nine, we will be anticipating the year “twenty ten.” That will be the first year of the “teens.” We will then look back at the “00s” (perhaps not so fondly by liberals) pronouncing the abbreviation as the “two thousands” by way of usage. The decade of the “nineties,” (i.e. 2090-2099) will give way to the “twenty-one hundreds” - the first decade of the twenty-second century - a decade with problems of its own, no doubt, but not the one we’re having now.
Nope, the future ain’t what it used to be.
OK, just one more angle to harden my theory. A decade is a set of ten years. In refering to that set, we naturally look for a commonality in the ten names in that set. For instance, the set: [two thousand, two thousand one, two thousand two, …, two thousand nine] contains “two thousand” as the common words. It is thus a set of 10 “two thousands,” the same way the “nineteen nineties” are a set of 10 “nineteen ninety-'s.”
The only reason we are confused now is that there is arguably no elegant, non-archaic way to shorten the “two thousands” to isolate the last two digits.
After 2009, we will progress to the “twenty teens,” and the word “thousand” will not be incorporated in the pronounciation of a contemporary date for 990 years. There is only one decade, for a millennium in either direction, that contains years involving the word “thousand” - this one.
These are the “two thousands.” Enjoy 'em while you still can. 
Granted, anyone who’s listened to the business report on the BBC knows the word “naught” is still in currency in the Commonwealth. However, it is one of many words we don’t typically use on this side of the pond. The British may well call the “00s” the “naughts” for a time, despite what Americans say. But the gargantuan of Yankee soft power (Hollywood in particular) will lay that to waste without the need for liberating the crap out of any more countries.
Also, the use of the “naughts” may make some sense for 1900-1909, but not for 2000-2009. We are not about to toast to the year “twenty oh five” or “twenty naught five.” Not even the Brits are saying that. The term “two thousand” has all the zeroes covered.
One of the problems we are having is that up until 2000 we spent our lives using the term “nineteen” to denote “the year” or “the year of.” We said “nineteen eighty-four” to clarify “eighty-four” as a year and not some other parameter. We lost that clarity on January 1, 2000. This is why many felt the need to continue using the archaic “the year two thousand.” But that is fading from usage, as is the “and” of 2001. (Thanks, Kubrik)
In 5 years, the term “twenty” will come to mean “the year of,” and will remain in usage for 90 years.
(Will I be banned from this board for running my trap for five straight posts without a reply?) :eek:
I don’t think the radio station’s know either. The one up here (yes, there’s just one, we’re a bit off the beaten path) advertises as “the 80’s, 90’s, and whatever.”
I was calling it the 2Ks for quite a while. I’ve sort of given up recently.
It seemed logical. Y2K > 2Ks. Why hasn’t that caught on?
Correctness be damned, I like the ring of “naughties”.
teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, naughties. Catchy, elegant.
Spread the meme now! Build enough momentum to forestall prudish objection!
PS roaring twenties, dirty thirties, fabulous forties, nifty fifties, sexy sixties, heavenly seventies, fraidy eighties, whiny nineties…
what follows?
We just need to go back to the decade 1000-1009 to see what they called it the last time this problem came up
Maybe the twenty-naughts, but the twokays sounds okay as well. Or maybe double-o-kay?
Actually, in the computer realm, people will confuse the 0x connotation with the “Hex” (base 16) notation system.
I’ve mostly heard this decade referred to as the 'aught’s.
Does it really matter how we describe our “current” decade? Why don’t we just let history determine what our decade was/is called?
Pretty much any description of our current “period” will be understood by our peers. It’s the people of the future that will have to settle on a name for “us”. Let’s not try to do their job; considering that it’s impossible.
Kind regards,
CB
“Best hits of the eighties, nineties and the oh-ies!”
Oh-ies! It’s fun to say and sends a positive message, unlike naughties.
And 2002 could be Oh-ee-two.
Oh-ies! Like a breakfast cereal.
Except more like 10 years’ worth of breakfast cereals.
Oooo, and the subsequent decade could be called
…wait for it…
The One-ies!
[wins Nobel Prize for chrono-ontology]
I’m off to the trademark office…
Ahem, it is decidedly NOT the “math geeks” telling us that. All “math geeks” know that zero is a number.
As a (ahem) Brit - I would refer to it as the Noughties rather than the Naughties.
A matter of semantics, I know, but there you are.
Alternatively we could refer to it as 'the decade where the United States of America spread peace, harmony and democracy around the world…
…Or perhaps not.
I’ll get my coat.
With considerable help from one Tony Blair.
Yes, zero is a number. So are -1, i, e, and 666. None of which are relevant to the question, “How many years in a century?”
**“Hey, you tryin’ to rip me off? This carton says ‘1 dozen eggs’, but there are only eleven.”
“So? Zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. That’s a dozen, buddy.”**
They also ought to know there’s no year of that number. Thus year 1-1000 inclusive, first millenium, year 1001-2000 inclusive, second millenium.