# What to call this decade? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 1, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284 "2010-01-01T12:31:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/1 "2010-01-01T12:31:34Z")
So we had the twenties thirties … nineties noughties So now, what is a good term for our new decade. There is the “tens”, the “two thousand and tens”, the “twenty tens” or the “teens”. None of these seem to have a good rhythm, so does anybody have a snappy term for it? ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/2 "2010-01-01T12:35:49Z")
Let’s call them “The End Times”, for a laugh, and then when we reach 2020 we can resume the usual routine. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/3 "2010-01-01T12:38:44Z")
We’ll wait another ten years, and then settle for calling it the “turn of the century”. Just like we did last time. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/4 "2010-01-01T12:43:13Z")
Okay, show-off. We weren’t all here when it last happened! ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/5 "2010-01-01T14:02:06Z")
I pledge to fight this “noughties” thing. I know they are using it on TV retrospectives and what have you, but I have never heard anyone say it in real life, and I reckon that is where decades get their nicknames. I have always said that the decade just finished will be known as “the two thousands” (because IME people say “two thousand and nine” etc., not “twenty-oh-nine” and certainly not anything involving the word “nought”). I don’t believe “noughties” will stick, but it’s certainly the leading contender among smart-arse names for the decade. As for this decade, I think we will tire of saying things like “two thousand and fourteen” so it will be “twenty fourteen”. So I would guess that the the decade will be the “teens”, regardless of the fact that not all of the years have “teen” in them. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/6 "2010-01-01T14:46:15Z")
I’m fond of the “Oh-No Decade” or the “Oh-Nos!”. Too apt. I wish I remembered where I first read it. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/7 "2010-01-01T15:47:50Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I pledge to fight this “noughties” thing. I know they are using it on TV retrospectives and what have you, but I have never heard anyone say it in real life, and I reckon that is where decades get their nicknames. I hated it in 2000, when I first heard it, but It’s grown on me since. For what it’s worth I use it in real life, and so do a lot of people I know. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/8 "2010-01-01T16:33:38Z")
“Noughties” is just too cute and clever/stupid. Whatever term we settle on will be one that is usable not just in TV programme titles, but also in newspaper reports and sober academic treatises. “During the eighties, the Soviet central committee introduced economic reforms”-- I can imagine reading such a sentence in a serious book. “Saddam’s regime finally fell in the early noughties”-- tosses book aside. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/9 "2010-01-01T16:44:57Z")
It has to be the Teens. I can’t see a way out of that, even though we still have 3 years to go before we hit a true teen. But the Teens might sound more natural when, in a few years, we start referring to the date as twenty-thirteen and so on. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/10 "2010-01-01T16:53:16Z")
Also, as much debate as there was over what to call the past decade, I think the most common term I’ve heard is “the two-thousands”. Which sounds as natural to me as “the nineteen-hundreds”. I suspect, once we’re into the 20s and beyond we’ll refer to them as the first decade and the second decade respectively. Also, the turn of the century (Or millennium). ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/11 "2010-01-01T17:05:36Z")
Umm, teens? ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/12 "2010-01-01T20:10:00Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > “Noughties” is just too cute and clever/stupid. Whatever term we settle on will be one that is usable not just in TV programme titles, but also in newspaper reports and sober academic treatises. > > “During the eighties, the Soviet central committee introduced economic reforms”-- I can imagine reading such a sentence in a serious book. > “Saddam’s regime finally fell in the early noughties”-- tosses book aside. I could imagine such a sentence on Wikipedia though … :rolleyes: Really, if it’s a book, what’s to stop them from writing “Saddam’s regime finally fell in the early '00s”? I’ve seen this in “serious books” (and newspapers), it’s just that “'00s” don’t have a set pronunciation like “'80s” does. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/13 "2010-01-01T20:25:19Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Also, as much debate as there was over what to call the past decade, I think the most common term I’ve heard is “the two-thousands”. Which sounds as natural to me as “the nineteen-hundreds”. I suspect, once we’re into the 20s and beyond we’ll refer to them as the first decade and the second decade respectively. Also, the turn of the century (Or millennium). The problem with saying “the 1900s” is that that might mean the entire century. And “the 2000s” might mean the entire _millennium_. There needs to be a way of distinguishing the decade from these larger divisions. > [@dhkendall](#): > > Really, if it’s a book, what’s to stop them from writing “Saddam’s regime finally fell in the early '00s”? I’ve seen this in “serious books” (and newspapers), it’s just that “'00s” don’t have a set pronunciation like “'80s” does. “The '00s” rolls out quite nicely as “the Zeroes” though. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/14 "2010-01-01T22:37:11Z")
We have just transitioned into the “teens,” from the “uh-ohs.” ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-call-this-decade/523284/15 "2010-01-03T20:51:39Z")
The twenty-tweens!