What Should We Call This Decade? Naming the 2000s and Beyond"

[check]

The decade’s almost half over… so what are we going to call it?

It’s one of those things that’s been coming up time and again since 2000, what do we call this decade? We had The (nineteen) Nineties, Eighties, Seventies… etc. but there doesn’t seem to be a general consensus as what to call the present decade.

Some are calling for the ‘naughts’, the double O’s, even the two thousands (in my opinion the worst one)

I guess the best way to determine what to call this decade is to look back at other decades that ended with 00, such as 1900. 1900 to 1909 is often referred to as the nineteen hundreds. Similarly 1800 to 1809 is often referred to as the eighteen hundreds and so on. The problem with this is that it doesn’t have the same sort of “zing” as the other decades. “The hundreds” doesn’t sound nearly as cool as “the nineties.” A ‘Best of the nineties’ CD sounds fine, but imagine “Best of the hundreds’? Not so cool.

So does this decade get screwed over? I think so.

 

[Math Is Hard]

That's really something to chew on. What can we say about the music, art, philosophy, science and politics of this decade thus far? And can it be summarized?

Double O's seems an extreme misnomer, since my opinion it has been (pardon the pun) extremely anti-climactic.

 

[Moonbear]

Yep, I think it all can be summarized easily...zippo! The zeros sounds good to me :-)

Really, you have to think when those "oldies" stations are playing the '00s, '10s and '20s, what will the DJ be saying? "More of those classic zeros, tens and twenties hits right after this commercial break!" Maybe it's just as well that the music of the past 4 years really hasn't distinguished itself from that of the 1990's, so nobody will notice if this decade is missing.

 

[Entropy]

How about Gor'rak? Or Zukhed?

 

[The Bob]

1900. 1900 to 1909 is often referred to as the nineteen hundreds. Similarly 1800 to 1809 is often referred to as the eighteen hundreds and so on.

Oh hope that is 1900 - 1999 and 1800 - 1899.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[The Bob]

The Twenties.

Simple, compact and doesn't need a lot of thniking about.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[balkan]

the "wishing we could make nano stuff" decade?

 

[check]

Oh hope that is 1900 - 1999 and 1800 - 1899.

It's true that the nineteen hundreds could refer to 1900 - 1999, but I think more often than not people use it to describe the years 1900 to 1909.

 

[selfAdjoint]

So it's just a decade, not a century? And we're now in the latest one: 2001 to 2009? So we want a numerical name to go along with "the teens" and "the twenties" and so on? Back in the first decade of the 20th century they used "the aughts"; aught is an old word for zero. But in the hundred years since then we have become totally ahistorical, so I guess an old word wouldn't work for us.

 

[Artman]

Fred. Fred the decade.

 

[holly]

The n00b-ade.

All these threads called "Help Name...,Please" -- I hope no one is making fun of me with these titles. :(

 

[Math Is Hard]

No way. Holly. You just started the hottest new thread type on PF, you trendsetter!

 

[balkan]

"the decade that the "pre-emptive warfare" term was invented" decade?

 

[jimmy p]

I prefer Cecil

 

[balkan]

what was the surname of the german married couple who didn't know they had to have sex in order to get pregnant? i think they deserve the honor...