I was born in the seventies. Grew up in the eighties. Survived the nineties. What is it now?? The naughties?? Is there any official word on this? Any suggestions?
Or the Aughties. Or the Nnaughty Aughties (of course they would have to turn out naughty).
I’ve been thinking about calling them the “'Tweens”. If only I could come up with some fun adjective for it!
Cecil’s column on the subject.
Are you talking about the current decade that ends Dec 31, or the next decade that begins Jan 1?
TampaFlyer, I think it was obvious that he’s referring to the decade that began last January 1 and will end December 31, 2009.
I think we should follow Jethroe Bodine’s example and refer to them as the “double naughts.” (i.e., “I’m a double naught spy!” or “007”) 2001 becomes “two double naught one.”
No, Amok, he’s not. For God’s sake, people, how many times must I go over this! Okay this has been done over and over. You’d think somebody would get it through their heads: THE 21st CENTURY BEGINS IN 2001! A good link explaining why (no year zero because the Romans were dunces at math) go here: http://www.georgian.net/rally/madness.html It is a well-done site that gives the facts well. I hope this will be the last time I have to give you people links to sites that say that. The next time I do, the thread is going to The Pit.
Derleth, if you agree with TampaFlyer then you are saying the decade ends this coming December 31st. Which means we are still in the '90s. Are you really suggesting that? Then 1990 was still in the '80s and 1980 was in the '70s, etc.
The decade does not have to be encompassed in the century, but can overlap it. The decade January 1st 2000 to December 31st 2009 can overlap the century January 1st 2001 to December 31st 2100.
Though I can’t find a column where Cecil mentions this point that decades and centuries can overlap, I did find a column where he mentions the year 2000 being in the decade that people may call the “aughties”, the “nixties”, the “voids” or “we still haven’t figured this out” (What will they call the class of '00?).
Note: in the body of this column originally posted in 1993 he tries to answer the question “What will we call the decade after the '90s?”, so Derleth and TampaFlyer could say Cecil was talking about the 10 year period starting after December 31st. But if you read the update at the end he says:
This unequivocally means he considers the year 2000 is in the problem decade not the '90s. Good enough for me. How about you?
For goodness sakes, people!
1999 was the last year of the 1990s and the last year of the 1900s.
2000 is the last year of the 20th century, the last year of the 2nd millenium, the first year of the 2000s and the first year of the zeroes/naughties/whatever.
2001 will be the first year of the 21st century and the first year of the 3rd millenium.
The 1990s, 1900s, 2000s, etc. IS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT WAY OF RECKONING YEARS/DECADES/CENTURIES/ETC. than the 20th century, 21st century, 2nd millennium, etc.
Yes, Kat is right on the whole decades-centuries-millenia thing.
I think that we could either go without calling this decade anything, or call it the “twenty-ohs”. Think about it. Is next year referred to as “aught-one” or “two-thousand-one”? No! It’s being called “twenty-oh-one”, and that makes sense to me. It just rolls of the tongue better than anything else. Twenty-oh-two, twenty-oh-three… twenty-oh-seven, twenty-oh-eight… Sure, it looks dumb when it’s written, but it sounds best when spoken
I am simply calling 2000 TOM, which is shortish for Turn Of the Millennium.
Regardless of whether you believe 20th C ends this year or ended with the last, 2000 is the year in which the transistion will occur.
I shall hence be referring to subsequent years as TOM+1, TOM+2, etc.
I have yet to decide on a proper label for the decade, but it will probably be something along the lines of TOM by 10, TOM of 10, TOM to the 10th, etc…
Is this some kinda “Pedantics Anonymous” gathering or have I just touched some really raw nerves out there? Geez folks, I was only askin’… let’s not flog that ol’ When’s-The-Turn-Of-The-Millenium horse again.
Hey, why not ask a Buddhist? They did the year 2000 about 500 years ago.
Derleth, Kat and Wanderer have basically made the point I was making, so I won’t get into that too much, but let me just point out I said nothing about when the 20th century ends and the 21st century begins. You might try reading what I write before flying off the handle next time. A decade is any 10 year period:
One decade is January 1st, 1990 to December 31, 1999, while another decade might be January 1st, 1991 to December 31, 2000. The latter is the 10th decade of the 20th century, but the former is the decade known as the 90s. Hmm, contrary to my promise I made Kat’s point over again. Ah well.
As for what to call the decade from January 1st, 2000 to December 31st, 2009, I haven’t the slightest.
For your system to work, the first decade would have to be a group of nine. Why? No year zero. 1-9 is only nine items. Count 'em. 1-10 is ten items. Therefore, the first decade AD is 1-10, second decade is 11-20, etc. All these decades adds up to a century. That century has its last year in AD 100. The second century is 101-200, the third century is 201-300, etc. As decades add to centuries, centuries add to millennia. The first millennium AD ends in AD 1000. The second runs from 1001-2000, the third runs 2001-3000, etc. You know, all this has a pattern. The 20th century ends in 2000, which actually begins with a two. Imagine that. Why would the 20th century leave out the first year where the first two digits is 20? Answer: It doesn’t. And no, Kat, it’s all one system, as I’ve just explained. Do you switch systems whenever you count past 9? Must make for interesting book-keeping.
Derleth, President of The Pedants? 
Wow, Derleth, how insightful. Why is it that whenever someone points out that “the 100 years from 1900 to 1999” colloquially known as “the 1900s” are not the same as “the 100 years from 1901 to 2000” colloquially known as “the 20th century”, someone tries to pretend that person said that the years 1-9 are a decade and the years 1-99 are a century? Heck, I could take “the 100 years from 1743 to 1842” and call them “the snerglif century” and that still wouldn’t mean I thought that 1-9 was a decade and 1-99 was a century. At the same time, “the snerglif century” is 100 years, and is not equivalent to “the 1700s”, “the 1800s”, “the 18th century” or “the 19th century”, even though there is overlap with all 4 of those other centuries.
This should be called the Decade of the Pain In the Ass Music Celebrities.
We got white guys trying to sing and act black.
We got black guys trying to sing and act Asian and black.
We got rappers trying to kill each other off.
We got rappers living the life they sing about and getting tossed in the can.
We got black girls harmonizing along 6 basic chords.
We got white girls harmonizing along 6 basic chords.
We still don’t know what to call this form of music, though they say rock is dead and what the hell ever this is that replaced it sucks.
We have country and western singers doing something like country rock.
We have teeny bopper rock stars as sex models.
We have ex-rock 'n rollers singing classical music.
We have the BOSS turning traitor to the American way and damning the cops, which won his faltering career a whole lot of non-votes.
We have some ugly little white (?) boy posing as a rapper side kick and talking about record deals.
Plus they took all of those great, weird cartoons off of late night MTV and poked on mainly black singers. That sucks!
I liked those cartoons!
In the mean time, more and more radio stations are going to Golden Oldies or talk radio.
And we got a Latino ex-soap ex-Broadway actors
with an Anglo name on top of the charts.
Sorry, but I hated him on General Hospital
and I hated him in Les Miz.
I am partial to the “Two K’s”. I’ve been verbally referring to upcoming years as “Two-K-One”, “Two-K-Two”, etc.
I haven’t heard a better idea.
Dr. J