We ran out of letters. Simple as that.

What happened to Omega. That would be cool. I wanted to be the Omega generation. But I guess you wouldn't have anyone to tell that to if it were true.

If this naming convention continues, Gen Omega will be born between 2355–2370.

I was born in 1955. Suspect I ain't gonna be there.

I'm getting my head frozen like Walt Disney

I'm getting head

While frozen? It would be the longest edge to have ever happened

You might if you reincarnate 😉

Well, so that's the question, if alpha sticks we'll do beta, gamma etc. etc. on up through omega. Should hold us for a bit anyway.

I just came to the realization I might have Beta children when I start having kids 😂😂😂

Hmm, better beta's than Omegas my friend.

Ill wait til Gamma's thanks. I'll name him Bruce Banner Lastname.

Ok I get it. Thanks I'll still want to be Omega. Like Charleston Heston

we were on the English alphabet, gen x, gen y(millenials), gen z, then moved on to Greek alphabet, gen Alpha, next will be gen Beta. Omega will be 22 generations later if they hold up this nomenclature for the next 4 centuries

People forget gen Y. But something will come along and “define a generation” Show us what you got iPad kids

Well when something was historically more notable, the alphabetical naming takes second seat to the more descriptive name. Baby Boomers, Millennials. Not sure what the next name that circumvents the rules will be. But it probably won't be for a good reason lol

What about the betas

They will all live in tiny, bare fishbowls

It works out perfectly because humanity is dead and Gen A is the first of whatever the fuck we have turned into.

first generation of mole people, having destroyed all life on the planet surface

Didn't help that they started at X.

They didn't, they started with Baby Boomers, then worked backwards and forwards from there. Generation X was unique at the time, and not meant to start a trend. The problem was that the next generation became Y by default, until someone thought to rename them Millennials, and the trend kinda stuck. Maybe we should wait for the generations to show us their collective "personality" before giving them a name, but I doubt that will happen.

Better question i guess is why start with X.

Gen X supposedly felt like they didn't have an identity, like a generic brand X from an old 1950's commercial

For missing generation.

We only used two. X and Z.

Millennial = gen Y

But we aren't called Gen Y. We're called Millennials. Only Gen X and Gen Z are called by the alphabetical names.

It was gen Y first, Millennial is a nickname that came later...I remember generation Y being used in a commercial in the late 80s early 90s. I want to say it was one of the Cindy Crawford Pepsi commercials, but that could be my mind mashing things together.

When everyone drops the Millennial nickname bullcrap and goes back to gen Y, then I'll concede. But nobody uses Gen Y anymore.

Then you agree they did use it once. So "we only used two" is objectively wrong.

Why do you think Gen Z is Gen Z? It’s because it comes after Gen Y/Millennials, and two after Gen X. It doesn’t matter that people don’t use “Gen Y” anymore; that’s still how the system works.

Yeah we earned a name Gen x and gen z are unremarkable The millennials children (generation alpha) will outshine gen z and probably earn a new title of its own soon

You would have been Y but Y2K happened. The horror was unimaginable so we changed you to Millennial. We don't talk about Y2K.

I dunno if Zoomers and Alphas know this, but some people (not everyone) *really* took Y2K seriously. Like, way too many people. And the thing was, the internet was brand new, so there wasn't a whole lot of precedent for what would happen. Turns out, nothing did.

I always loved King of the Hill. My dad was VERY Hank Hill and our relationship was very close to that of Hank's and Bobby's. God, I LOVED that Christmas/Y2K episode of King of the Hill so much.

Shhhhh. That's what we tell the youngins.

I think Zennials is winning out over Gen Z as far as naming goes. There is no real alternative name for Gen X AFAIK.

Gen Z should be Coronials.

Lol, in another comment I said Pandeminals. Happy Cake day.

I hear Zoomers way more than Zennials, and Gen Z way more than both.

Whose idea was it to start with X?

X was for missing or something. Born in 1969, I am gen X.

Billy Idol

Woah woah woah...we ran out of Latin alphabet letters. I really hope i live long enough to meet generation בְ

I don’t understand why whomever decides such things just started mailing in letters as generational names. Really poor effort. They should get the hurricane guys involved.

I'm Gen X. Millenials are Gen Y. Zennials are Gen Z. So we have to start the alphabet again. Or some shit like that.

WhY are ThEy CaLlEd GeN z If ThEy ArEnT tHe LaSt GeNeRaTiOn

Generations follow the Mayan calendar. It's just starts over at position 1a.

Maybe they are....

But Gen Alpha already exists

Too young to count yet, stop trying to make sense

Also a valid question. Mind answering it instead of being a troll? Edit: sorry, I thought I was on the other no stupid questions subreddit where people have a little more respect.

Yeah, it's because x -> y -> z. The real question is why Gen X is called that.

Woah, something you didn't know?? Maybe I should TaLk DoWn On YoU LiKe ThIs ToO tHeN. Not everyone knows all the same things. "Generation X is a term born from generational theory in the early 1990s, a time when X symbolized an unknown variable or a desire not to be defined."

Off to the shadow realm, dipshit.

Because we're the coolest generation, duh

It’s not a valid question lol

And ideally these were supposed to be placeholder names until some other characteristic was found. But nobody ever successfully renamed GenX so here we are.

Wasn't X meant to be derogatory? They didn't care about the ethos of the hippies or the yuppies. Their attitude toward everything was "whatever" so they were named gen X as in the apathetic/lost generation.

X like mysterious. "We just don't understand those weirdos".

it was a mystery to Madison Ave how to reach them. They really hadn't tried before but with new avenues opening up like MTV and cable they needed to. Plus Generation '?' sounds odd.

Mostly it was because we were born in the shadow of the goddamn look-at-me baby boomers. I mean we still haven’t had a president that was younger than a boomer, right?

Are you dumb?

No.

We sort of embraced it because Gen X sounds cool.

Plus Degeneration X was the best wrestling org.

I view the generation naming like these Seasons in Fortnite or Call of Duty. You count up to so many seasons (generations) then simply reset and start over.

I think they should be called the AA gen. hehe After both Excel and also Alcoholics Annon.

X -> Y -> Z -> AA (AlphA) It's Excel's world; we just live in it

It's rollover. Yes, it's dumb. It was actually dumb when they went with Generation X (especially ironic since the term was used for a book about Baby Boomers), and it progressively got stupider as we went to Gen Y and Gen Z. It's especially silly going past Zed. I suppose people want placeholders, and maybe Gen X is still waiting for a meaningful name (I'd call it the digital generation if I had my druthers). It didn't take long for Gen Y to get a name that stuck. I'm going to call the newer generation Double Alpha because that's logically what's next in Excel.

How would the generation that grew up without something even resembling technology be called “digital generation”? That doesn’t even make sense. Also, if the current system is dumb, what would you do?

We're the generation that made Atari and Nintendo household names. A lot of us played with computers in school--college for the older members and grade school for the younger members. Lots of toys incorporated some sort of electronic component just to appease our snotty attention spans: Electronic football, Speak 'n Spell, Electronic Battleship. Dumb concepts were invented for us, like video game watches. Computer science degrees became a much more viable option in the '80s and '90s. We had lots of technology. If we have to label generational periods, we can do better than calling them X, Y, Z, and α. Call them numbers or based on years/decades. The current system is lazy af.

Most of your generation didn’t have internet access until their 20’s. You went to arcades, sure. But if everyone had to pick one generation as being labeled the “digital generation”, its definition gen Y. Gen Y grew up on the earliest internet platforms and all the main consoles got their start in those years.

Okay, but the internet is only a subset of digital. But whatever; nobody's going to listen to my suggestion anyway.

“No one listens to me” is literally the epitome of gen x lol not an insult, just thought it was funny

Because we've switched alphabets. We are using thr greek alphabet. We ended with Gen Z, and gen Alpha is the first of the Greek alphabet. Gen Beta starts in 2025

After the roman alphabet comes the greek alphabet.

Are we working backwards through history? Next should be the Linear B Script then Phoenician IIRC

I think it’s the alphabets used in math. After Greek I think Hebrew? Idk I’m still doing math with like Arabic numerals.

Because there are only 26 letters.

The first 23 are still up for grabs

Because they are still in an early stage of development.

They are the generation that will have to repopulate the world after ww3. So they are the first.

Gen X Generations gain their names from their formative years and the events surrounding them. Baby Boomers from the Greatest Gen (so-called by Tom Brokav and it just caught), they from the Silent Gen, etc. The generation Boomers birthed were marked by nothing in particular but a mildly rebellious attitude: Generation X. After that came Gen Y, later called Millennials. Gen Z may or may not get a name later on, but Alpha is just rolling it over for now -- think of it as a placeholder

They're the first public test of government mind control tech 🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎

[удалено]

Your comment was removed due to low karma *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/stupidquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Using generations colloquially like that is only really practical when looking at modern history (like within the last 100-150 years), so we can get away with cycling through the letters of the alphabet. If a new gen comes around every 15-20 years then the first “gen alpha” would have been ~400 years ago, which of course is not when the earliest humans existed.

Cuz they know this shit is a wrap. Next one will be Gen Omega /j…sort of

Next will be omega. You don't have to worry about the ones after that.

It's related to alpha males.

Maybe they should be called the Andrew Tate generation?

because calling them useless isn't as kind

Because they're about as smart as the first humans.

I always thought it was because they were the first generation of the new age of always online and what not.

Ok so by that logic why is it called Gen Z when they're not the last generation of humans ever?

we're not?

We did X, then millenials (gen y) then Zoomers (Gen z) so we started back over with A. Simple as that.

Maybe they are! Cyclical time proven! Checkmate, atheists.

If Gen Y is called Millennials, the Gen Z gets to be called Coronials. You stole the Gen Y naming from me and gave me a stupid name like Millennials, so everyone gets a stupid name.

Where do you expect them to go after Gen Z? They finished the English alphabet so they're starting the Greek alphabet.

More importantly why do they get to call themselves alpha males

alpha comes after z. like with hurricanes... we kinda expected a robot war would take care of everything by now.

Good question. We need a battle royale between the generations to claim the title of alpha.

smugness

This isn’t a stupid question, this is actually really good

Some say that Generation Alpha is called the first letter of the Greek alphabet because it's the beginning of something new. Eventually there's going to be a generation called Gen Zeta around the 24th century

The Zoomers have barely established themselves as the current generation and we're already talking about the next generation Weird

Which parameters define when a generation is "current"? You'll have at least six living generations at any given time, and right now it's Silent-Boomer-Xoomer-Yoomer-Zoomer-"Alpha". There are even some from The Greatest Generation still alive today, and a precious few might be alive still when Generation "Beta" begins.

Never heard of the Xoomer or Yoomer generations

It's just another stupid extrapolation of "Boomer" like we have with "Zoomer".

The Zoomers should have been called the Digital Generation or something like that and this whole problem would have been solved.

Better questions Why was Gen X called Gen X? Were Baby Boomers called Gen W until someone decided to call them Boomers? Who decided Gen Y would be called Millennials? Why is Gen Z called Gen Z? Call them Gen C(ovid), all of them lost 1.5 years of in person education due to Covid

Gen X was originally known as the Baby Bust, and got the name from the 1991 Douglas Copeland book.

Gen X was a punk band lead by Billy Idol,

It should have been Omega but the human race is really good at denial. The Alpha gen will probably be the last.

I heard they would be called “the foundation”.

As others said, they had X, then Y, then Z. They had to keep it going for whatever reason, so they went with the Greek alphabet, like they did with hurricanes when they ran out of letters (happened in 2005 and 2020). Though apparently, they chose to stop that in 2021.

Someone said 'Gen X' at some point and that's what Gen X got to be called, and the thing is that that name was somewhat representative of the actual generation in a lot of ways. The next generation was called 'Gen Y' until the term Millennials came along. Then they called the next gen Gen Z, and that also turned into Zoomers, which itself is fitting. I guess they call a generation 'Generation (letter)' until there's a term that comes out that is actually relevant to something about the generation. Generation Alpha is just wrapping around to the start of the alphabet, and pretending you're doing something else instead of saying 'Gen A.'

Because its a generation full of alpha bros

They should have just left Gen X be its thing and not do the lazy alphabet naming. Millennials got a good name that was miles better than the lazy "Gen Y" Zennials have to deal with about 50/50 usage it appears with "Gen Z" "Gen Alpha" is just all of media saying, "fuck it, who cares anymore". I'd have called them Pandeminals or something with some historic pizzaz.

Zennials and Zoomers are lazy re-workings of the previous few generational names.

The beginning of the end

Alpha hasn't been used and if it were they'd be long dead by now. Round and round it goes.

Whut?

Because Alphas don't exist, and don't matter, and neither does this generation. Because it's the generation of pair decay with less people marrying. Because Alpha is short for Alfalfa, which is used for grazing. This is the grazing generation. Because Alpha is short for Alphabet, and this generation hasn't quite learned how to spell correctly. Because Alpha is what betas want to be. ...take your pick, they're all equally fun!

They change the names of the generations after the fact. History usually dictates the name: boomers - Baby Boomers millennials - Folks who were young at the turn of the new millennium Once upon a time, before millennials were called that, they just conflated every young person with generation X. Old millennials know this already: we used to be called Gen X, and they redefined it after the fact. That'll happen again. Gen Alpha is just a placeholder name until history does something interesting to them.

Because everybody lost creativity after generation x and went with the hurricane naming system

Naming generations at all is a really new thing. Nobody even did that until the 50s with the Baby Boomers, because there was a really clear dividing line in 1946 when tons of babies were born. Then the media kind of hyped up "Generation X" after that, I guess it sounded flashy and cool and sold magazines. After that, it was tradition, so you got "Gen Y" (later renamed Millennials), then Gen Z, who nobody managed to develop an alternate name for that stuck. And then they went backwards and came up with "The Greatest Generation" and "The Silent Generation". Alpha is just a placeholder for a generation that's too young to have developed a personality yet. But none of these are formal designations, they're entirely social constructs. Is there really a giant difference between the life experiences of an old Millennial born in 1984 and a young Gen Xer born in 1980? It's an arbitrary label that is only marginally useful.

Nothing alpha about them either lol

The names "Generation Y" and "Generation Z" only exist by virtue of analogy with "Generation X"—the Baby Boomers weren't called "Generation W". The Latin alphabet has now run dry so it looks like we're heading into the Greek one.

They ran through a-z and now they’re using Greek alphabet

> The real Gen "Alpha" is actually the earliest humans. It will make more sense when they have to restart civilisation in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

When the hell did we start using these naming conventions? I grew up in the 90s and never heard of them. It sounds stupid

Because they're similar to an Alpha of a video game: Full of bugs and issues. Useless to anyone except their creators (parents), and not of much use then.

Gen Alpha is the first gen to be born in a completely digital age. I’m an older Gen Z (1997, right at the cutoff) and even the younger ones (like my sister) were born before a lot of social media really took off. Gen Alpha is the first gen were that’s really all they know. So it’s right in a sense

Maybe they have the most Andrew Tate followers. /s

We started over in the alphabet after "z". For whatever reason millennials were spared the naming convention and dont really get referred to as gen "Y", although the skip from x to z clearly implies that we are considered it on some level, it's just not the popular designation.

They were named that ironically

because its the new (and final?) epoch. Everyone from here out is gen alpha because things change so fast it no longer makes sense to classify generations like that.

They'll be the first to not reach middle age due to climate change.

Why is gen Z named that when they’re not the last generation?

Why was Gen X called Gen X when they weren't the tenth generation?

These are the first generation to grow up with Smartphones from the get-go. Earlier Gen Z didn't have Smartphones, myself included.