TIME MAGAZINE: A Brief History of Naming the 2000s

Waxing nostalgic about this decade is going to be tough. And not just because there's plenty--from 9/11 to the financial apocalypse--we'd rather forget. No, the trouble is that when we tell our grandkids about the first decade of the 21st century, we may not know what to call it.

This gap in the English language shouldn't come as a surprise; the debate over what to name the first decade of this century has been going on since the middle decades of the last one. The 1900s never got a name beyond vague constructions like the turn of the century. One popular term--the aughts--has proved too archaic (and tricky to spell) to be broadly revived. Wordsmiths tried new coinages starting early: in 1963 a New Yorker writer suggested "Twenty oh-oh" for the far-off year 2000, a "nervous name for what is sure to be a nervous year." Twenty years later, a New York Times editorial proposed the Ohs. In 1989 the late word guru William Safire floated Zippy Zeros. (It sank.) In 1999 a New York City arts collective mounted a campaign to name the decade the naughties, plugging the moniker on posters and stickers around the city. Attempts to poll our way to consensus failed. One in 6 voters in a 1999 USA Today poll preferred a variant of the aughts to the 2Ks, the Zips and the First Decade, among other options; in a separate survey the same year, 20% of respondents picked the Double O's. Meanwhile, in a poll by the British p.r. firm QBO, the Zeroes prevailed.

Mounting Y2K hysteria overshadowed debate in the late '90s, as many worried less about what to call the next decade and more about whether there would be one. After the world failed to end at the stroke of midnight, linguistic experts promised that a nickname would bubble up over time. Despite creative attempts--including Ryan Guerra's decade-long quest to popularize the Unies via brochures and blog manifestos--none has. We've gotten by for so long calling this decade the 21st century--a term that will sound ridiculous in 50 years--that we might as well get started on christening the next one. Will it be the tweens? The teens? An Australian website has already suggested the One-ders. Here we go again.

– BY LAURA FITZPATRICK

Google Helps Name the Decade

Google has helped name the decade the Unies because it goal is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". Google is also dependent on PageRank - a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set.

Basically, it gives rank dependent upon how many hyperlinks a web page receives. The more hyperlinks the more relevance. The whole web is based upon hyperlinks.

So in a round about way, Google has helped organize the World Wide Web. It was dependent on links and the power of links. It created a multi-billion dollar business off of the internet by basing its search results on how many links people give a particular web page. It unified the internet.

Without Google, the internet was a mess. With Google, the internet was unified, organized and useful.

The iPod helps Name the Decade

There are many crazy ideas floating around as the name for this current decade. I will reveal how Apple's iPod helped name the decade the Unies.

Apple's iPod is the icon of this decade. There is not one piece of technology that has been used more, sold more and recognized more than the iPod. Even in silhouette, the small device can be recognized instantly.

Although, the iPod was introduced October 23, 2001, it has sold more than 220,000,000 million units as of September 9th 2009. That means a lot of people have something vastly in common. We each share the ability to digitalize our entire music catalog and carry it with us where ever we go. Not only has the iPod unified our music library, it has given all something to relate too.

Again, it has unified our music catalogs. People now are able to have more than just the 10 to 15 songs on a CD. Today, we are able to carry around 1,000s of songs.

A list of Recent Naming the Decade Articles

Here is a list of recent articles about Naming the Decade.

Name that Decade
The Rise of the Singles
Parasitic excuse for a decade needs a name
What Do You Call a Decade Like the '00s?
Thanksgiving 2009 and the End of the Decade

Naming the Decade, Everyone's Right

After ten years, it seems like everyone is right on what we should call this decade. Who am I to argue the point or tell them they are wrong. Look, with the rise of social media, tweeter, blogs, everyone has a chance to create a reason and a meaning for this decade. We are all right, by you reading my blog you give me a review, buzz, recommendation, or thumbs up to help valiadate my idea.



In 1999, I created a term and wrote a pamphlet titled, "Unification of the Unies." Who would have thought that in many ways I'm right. The Unies - the term created from a Latin prefix based on the numbers between 0 and 9 - not only answers the problem about pronouncing this decade, 00s but it also sums up the decade perfectly.

The years between 2000 and 2009 were about the world becoming unified. Social media sites have made people connected and brought the world together. Youtube has encouraged people to search and view for funny videos throughout the world. Today, a family get together means logging on to Youtube to have your cousin show you all the recent funny videos he found. (This is true in my family because in the 90s we made videos but we had no where to show them.)



We are more connected with iPhones, Palm Pilots, Blackberry's and other mobile communication devices. Today, when going on a date, we don't learn how to accept different ideas and arguments. Now, we quickly search to see who is right and who is wrong. Or we call someone who can help us remember a certain or forgotten memory.

We keep up with people's lives by reading blogs and tweetering about their daily events. Today, the people who comment on David Segal's article about the missing decade name are able to communicate with each other and read their opinions. It is amazing, we have a chance to be connected to other readers.

Even September 11, 2001 helped unify the world. More religions were brought together during the memorial services than at any other time in the world.

Then the Swine flu showed the world that we are more connected as we track the spread and outbreak happening in real-time across the globe. We always new the flu was contagious but nothing like the Swine flu.

The world and the people on it wanted to grow and connect through forums and communities. Look at Wikipedia, a site truly created by the entire world adding and documenting the facts. Imagine people working together for free in order to serve a greater good. This is a small example of a larger phenomenon, open source.

Although, Napster was started operating in June 1999 until July 2001, we saw how the world was ready to interact and share. It was an example of things to come. The Unification of the World.

There is a draw back to this crazy and unifying world. We see this with the collapse of the world economies. Not only is the world's finances unified but the reasons why are too. We are going through another revolution, the Information Revolution. The world's economies are changing rapidly since people are able and willing to work for free. Yes, I said the word free, but Chris Anderson wrote about it in his book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

The ramifications of the world being able to work together is about to hit a crisis. Imagine how many jobs were lost due to Wikipedia's growth. Imagine how much money Microsoft lost due to the Linux operating system. Imagine how many newspapers have folded due to Google's search engine along with Craiglist's free postings of classified ads.

Google's growth illustrates the Global marketplace or the unified marketplace. Today, a great website can acquire a global marketplace. No longer do you need to go to the local shoe store when you can purchase shoes from Zappos at unbelievable prices and 100% satisfaction policies.

We truly are more unified then ever before!!! The Unies was about unification. Even though every one is right, the Unification in the Unies is by far the greatest example and accomplishment the world has ever participated in.

More to come!!!

The Rise of Globalization, The Unification of the Unies

As I get older, I enjoy looking at old photos because they represent the fun times in life. Rarely, do you ever take photos of bad times. The majority of my photos are of my family vacations, birthdays, weddings, and a slew of other positive memories.

Unfortunately, naming the decade has just the opposite effect. It seems that the public wants to remember this decade with some negativity. Some expressions or names the public casts to represent this decade include: “Bubble Decade”, “Decade of Disruptions”, “One-der Decade”, and “Overshoot.” Most every name the public creates is negative

I believe this decade is about Unification. The years between 2000 and 2009 represents an era of unification, a time in which the world became a smaller place.

This decade includes the rise of Globalization. The Euro was introduced in January 1st, 2009 but it grew up in the 2000s. The world religions united after September 11, 2001. Social Media sites like Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, Youtube, and Twitter were created. Diseases like the swine flu are global issues that effect countries all at one. Global warming is not just a problem with the United States rather it is a global problem.

Yes, there are tragedies and fears in this decade but let’s face it, every decade has the same the problem. Although, this decade '00s (pronounced Unies), we are able to communicate information to the entire world. With the Internet, I can communicate to someone living in Iran as they face the election crisis.

This decade birthed the rise of Globalization. We have become unified during the Unies. A small website can now have a global customer base. An individual can have the power of a huge media conglomerate.

Many other languages write the United Nations as Nations Unies. We are truly living in a time that is more unified now than ever before. The planet got a whole lot smaller.