Naming the Decade

TIME MAGAZINE: A Brief History of Naming the 2000s

2009-12-25T12:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-18T19:03:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-18T18:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-11T06:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-08T19:14:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-04T08:26:00.001-08:00

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.

I Love the 00s covers Pincecrest Tribune

2009-09-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

Naming the Decade Heads to Google

2009-08-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to California, I had a chance to stop by and present the idea to the nerdy folks at Google (nerdy is used as a compliment). Although, many of the employees at Google understand the idea they were more happy to promote their search engine tool. Queries, algorithms, and bounce rate seems more important to them then knowing what decade Google took over the world!

SES San Jose Conference 2009

2009-08-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

Ryan Guerra gets interviewed about the 00s and the 10s at the SES San Jose 2009 Conference. Cathy Ferreira captures the impromptu interview on camera as Ryan mentions the significance of naming this decade the Unies (00 - 09) and the next decade the Decies (10-19). Ryan also has the June 2009 Miami Herald article "A Singular Quest" on hand proving that he has started a successful campaign for naming the decade.

New Logo: I Love the 00s, I Love the 10s

2009-06-15T04:23:00.000-07:00

After a recent graphic design meeting with the team, we decided on the final logo for I love the 00s and I love the 10s. This new logo resembles the I Love NY but it is not too similar where the logos get mistaken. This was a big challenge as we were not trying to take anyone's image. We wanted to create our own image for years to come.

Aughts is a Dumb Name for the Decade

2009-05-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

It seems like the entire world is so not looking at the complexities of finding a word for this decade. The term aughts means zero. These fools are looking into one factor about this decade, the zeros that are in the abbreviated decade version of 00s. They are attempting to create a word from Old English to create a word that represents zeros. Aught means zero or nothing! That is the definition of aught, I didn't make it up.

However, you may use any of the words that means zeros like nil, nada, aught, nuaght, ought, zilch, nothings and ect. Fill in the blank and you get the same purpose for the name.

This is not a correct way to create the pronunciation for 00s. It goes beyond the simple zeros in the abbreviation of 00s.

This need for a word is all about finding a term that means the counting numbers between 0 and 9 only. Currently, there is a missing word for the numbers between 0 and 9.

Through my recent studies we don't have a word that represents the 10 (originally nine) different glyphs in the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in a form similar to twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties.

The Hindu-Arabic numeral system is a positional decimal numeral system developed by the 9th century (the earliest known description is Al-Khwarizmi's, dating to ca. 825) and spread to the western world through Arabic mathematicians by the High Middle Ages. Yes, the glyphs and symbols we are referring to are the digits: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9.

So the rest of the world refers to these numbers as the single digits.

Double digit numbers 10 through 99 uses a combination of these glyphs. Triple digit numbers 100 to 999 uses another combination of these glyphs. We can go on and on but the point we are making is that the numbers between 0 and 9 have no word that means the complete set of this numbers.

The numbers between 0 and 9 have one common factor - they are all one digit. In Latin, there is a word or prefix, from mathematics that means one, uni.

The glyph or symbol 0 is only one (uni) digit.
The glyph or symbol 1 is only one (uni) digit.
The glyph or symbol 2 is only one (uni) digit.
The glyph or symbol 3 is only one (uni) digit.
The glyph or symbol 4 is only one (uni) digit.
The glyph or symbol 5 is only one (uni) digit.
The glyph or symbol 6 is only one (uni) digit.
The glyph or symbol 7 is only one (uni) digit.
The glyph or symbol 8 is only one (uni) digit.
The glyph or symbol 9 is only one (uni) digit.

If we took all the one digit numbers between 0 and 9 then they are one-digits, single-digits, and uni-digits. Or simply the Unies. The term unies is derived from Latin and means the numbers between 0 and 9.

Aughts means zero and if you have a bunch of zeros you still have nada.

A Sports Uniform is Made by Adding Numbers

2009-05-25T18:43:00.003-07:00

In order to make a uniform, you must add numbers to a piece of clothing to identify a player from another player. The word uniform is derived from the Latin word uni- which means to bring together to make one. It is also a Latin prefix that means one.

10 Digits

2009-05-24T07:59:00.001-07:00

If you add the number of digits between the numbers 0 and 9 you get 10 digits. The word uni has a value of one. Each number is only one digit in length. In contrast, the number of digits between 0 numbers is zero. Zero has no value.

10 Unicycles

2009-05-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

If you add up the number of wheels on ten unicycles you get the number 10. The word uni has a value of one. In contrast, the number of wheels on 0 unicycles is zero. Zero has no value.

10 Unicorns

2009-05-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

If you add up the number of horns on ten unicorns you get the number 10. The word uni has a value of one. In contrast, the number of horns on 0 unicorns is zero.

All the Decade Name Suggestions Debunked, Except Unies

2009-05-24T07:37:00.001-07:00

Seriously, two-thousands, aughts, naughts, ohs and zeros is that the best we have?

All right, enough of the useless speculation of what we should call the decade, the years between 2000 and 2009. It seems every article or web page I find on this topic has one thing in common, they all just present a bunch of ridiculous suggestions. Not one of these articles and web pages present the best idea or the most supported term.

Ten year’s, I’ve been researching this topic and there is not one media outlet that really has jumped on board to resolve this question and capture the hearts and minds of America and the world together. Are they afraid? With all the grounding breaking social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, you would think one individual or small task force could push their term to the mainstream. Unfortunately, media has not jumped on board and the social media sites have not helped further a grass roots campaign. Shocking!

These terms and suggestions previously mentioned, simply don’t work. They don’t work because they don’t fit the formula. Formula, you might be asking yourself, “What’s that?” A word or term used for the nameless decade should be able to be used in weather, ages and the decade.

Weather

A weatherman might report, “temperatures will be getting cold tonight in the low to mid-twenties.” or he might state, “Temperature will be getting hot tonight in the mid- to upper-nineties.” He uses the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties but nothing for the numbers between 0 and 9. For this they usually use “single digits.” So we would have to find a word which would replace single digits. Let’s try each suggested word in the weather formula.

Two-thousands – “Temperatures are getting cold tonight in the low to mid- two-thousands.”
Aughts – “Temperatures are getting cold tonight in the low to mid-aughts.”
Naughts – “Temperatures are getting cold tonight in the low to mid-naughts.”
Ohs – “Temperatures are getting cold tonight in the low to mid-ohs.”
Zeros – “Temperatures are getting cold tonight in the low to mid-zeros.”
Unies – “Temperatures are getting cold tonight in the low to mid-unies.”

You see, none of the terms suggested make sense except for one. I will explain why each term doesn’t fit the weather formula except the Unies.

Two-thousands – The term two-thousands works for the decade now but doesn’t work for weather. The focus of this term is on 2,000 and not the numbers between 0 and 9. The two-thousands will actually be the years between 2000 and 2999. So the focus on this word is completely incorrect.
Aughts, Naughts, Ohs, Zeros - The term aughts, naughts, and ohs all are synonyms of zero. Zero is best describe as a null set or empty set, as in having no value. So making the numbers between 0 and 9 the aughts, naughts, ohs and zeros doesn’t make sense. It is empty or having no members. You can not make an empty set plural because it has no value. Oh and Ohs has the same value, zero. Zero and Zeros has both add up to Zero.
Unies – The term unies or uni- is a Latin word that means one. The numbers between 0 and 9 are all one-digit in length. The word uni- means one, like unicycle and unicorn. It is also a prefix to mean come together to make one, a university is a bunch of colleges. If you add the number of 10 unicorns, you will get the number 10. There is a value to uni- unlike zeros, ohs, naughts, and aughts.

Ages

All my life I have experience in thinking about my own age. Currently, I’m in my thirties and I remember in my twenties when I began this journey to name the decade. Again, the term to group the numbers between 0 and 9 can be used for ages too. What is the word that people remember for the age between 0 and 9? Nobody really remembers this age nor do they speculate on the coming years or groups of years like we do when we are older, say your sixties and seventies. Let’s try to use the suggestions for ages.

Two-thousands – “I remember very little about my two-thousands.”
Aughts – “I remember very little about my aughts.”
Naughts – “I remember very little about my naughts.”
Ohs – “I remember very little about my ohs.”
Zeros – “I remember very little about my zeros.”
Unies – “I remember very little about my unies.”

You see, none of the terms suggested make sense except for one. I will explain why each term doesn’t fit the age formula except the Unies.

Two-thousands – The term two-thousands works for the decade now but doesn’t work for ages because it is too big of a number. The focus of this term is on 2,000 and not the numbers between 0 and 9. The two-thousands will actually be the years between 2000 and 2999. So the focus on this word is completely incorrect. A person will never live to be 2,000 years old.
Aughts, Naughts, Ohs, Zeros - The term aughts, naughts, and ohs all are synonyms of zero and a person cannot be zero years old. Again, these terms have no value, they are an empty set.
Unies – The term unies or uni- is a Latin word that means one. The numbers between 0 and 9 are all one-digit in length. This could work for ages.

NEED I SAY MORE

I Love the 00s Coffee Mug

2009-05-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

As an avid coffee drinker, my girlfriend Cathy ordered a special mug with the "I Love the 00s" logo on the front. I get to see this logo every morning as I begin my daily pursuit to name the decades, 00s and 10s.

The Evolution of Man: From Ape to Human to Alien

2009-05-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

This is the first blog posting not directly related to naming the decade. However, as a forward thinker, I wanted to present an idea that has existed inside of me for a long period of time. The idea is about how the Evolution of Man, where by men evolved from Apes will eventually lead men to evolve into aliens. I have never read an article or story about this concept, so I want to present my small vision on this intriguing idea.

Man has always had a fascination with aliens. This fascination was only encouraged by Hollywood. Whether an extraterrestrial being, or a person from another plant, man has always sought UFOs and aliens. But nobody has really described and tried to uncover the idea that aliens are humans in the future. While human evolution can be f

The study of human evolution encompasses many scientific disciplines, most notably physical anthropology, primatology, linguistics and genetics. Whereas, the new alien evolution is the future foresight that man will become aliens by either important physical transformations by choice or by needs makes man evolve into the alien form we come to recognize.

You see most of science fiction leads men on a quest to accomplish what only the imagination has created. Face transplants, flight, teleportation, space travel and laser beams are only a few distinct examples of what man has only once thought about but overtime has scientifically worked to achieve these vast imaginations. We flight.

Let's take this step by step and see if our idea can be explained further.

Big Alien Eyes

The alien face is the most recognizable aspect of an alien. We see the big large eyes which give off the spooky alien look. But how would this look be replicated or encouraged mankind to recreate and tamper with them. Well it is a known fact that a bee's eyes see a different part of the light spectrum mostly ultraviolet light. Humans see visible light, or simple light. It might be possible to genetically engineer our eyes to see a different portion of the light spectrum. Including radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma ray. So who's is to say that we can not genetically engineer our eyes to see a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Green Skin

Next up, is the green skin. Our alien imagination always depicts aliens with green skin. Well, this is an easy one to explain through genetic engineering. Our world is made up with many plants, trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae which are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. The mostly obtain energy from sunlight through photosynthesis. Is it possible to cross humans with plants and genetically engineer our human makeup with plants, whereas we future humans obtain energy via photosynthesis too? It could be possible and by genetically engineering ourselves with plants, it would give our bodies the green skin. This slow man-made evolution could start a natural evolution eliminating the need for teeth and big mouths. Our mouths would get smaller due to the lack of a tung. Overall, photosynthesis could make our bodies smaller in size, lack of protein and muscle mass.

I Love the 00s Shirt Unveiled

2009-05-11T15:27:00.001-07:00

After months of waiting, my girlfriend wears the first "I Love the 00s" t-shirt. This new t-shirt is a great design. Check out the hearts in the middle of the 00s and the o in Love.

What does Y2K mean?

2009-05-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

On September 18, 1998, I walked around the University of South Carolina campus asking students, "What does Y2K mean? We get many different answers to the question and each answer illustrates that people just didn't know.

So here we are in 2009 and we just don't know what to call this decade, 00s. So why is media, news stations waiting for the people to name the decade? People are not going to know how to pronounce 00s or 10s.

Let's jump on the bandwagon and name the decades, the Unies and Decies. We can't just sit around and let the people name the decade. It is even taught that newspapers have to write to a 6th grade education. With this said, we shouldn't wait for the world to think of some ridiculous answer. Check out the Suggestions for the Decade Name.

Nobody Knows How to Pronounce 00s

2009-04-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Recently, I did a simply search through Google images for 00s. The first thing I noticed was my logo was the 2nd result listing. Although seeing this should make me excited this is not my point. Rather my point is how few times people actually used the 00s. The reason why nobody uses it is because they don't know how to pronounce it.

Take for instance 90s. Do a simple Google images search for the term 90s. You will notice there are way more visual examples of 90s in the results. Especially when comparing a few pages of each to each other.

The reason is more likely, that people just don't know how to pronounce the word 00s. Well, I will simply let you know now how to pronounce the word....the Unies!

Joel's Take on the 00s and 10s

2009-04-27T06:29:00.001-07:00

I have known Ryan Guerra for most of this decade, during which time he has been trying to name it the "unies." Despite ribbing him for continuing this fools errand, I admire his tenacity and have to agree with him; this decade needs a name. The only alternative name for this decade, that I have heard so far, is the awkward phrase "The two thousands." While this works as a noun, it is impossible to use and an adjective. For the previous eight decades, we been able to describe (mainly cultural) phenomena with adjectives denoting the decade in which they (mainly) occurred: "sensitive nineties guy", "big hair, eighties rockers", "seventies hippies", etc. Hopefully the English-speaking world will soon rectify oversight, and adopt Ryan's proposed name of "the unies" for this decade, and "the decies" for the next decade, which is just around the corner, and also does not have a name!

Joel Froese
Strategy Consultant
Columbia, SC
International MBA, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, 2005

I Love the 00s Goes to Dry Tortugas

2009-04-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

Cathy Ferreira interviews Ryan Guerra at the exotic Dry Tortugas in Key West, Fl about the 00s and the 10s. She asks questions about the origination of the 00s (pronounced unies) and the 10s (pronounced decies), upcoming plans and future events to promote the 00s and 10s.

Miami Seen Through Blackberry

2009-04-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

As I was standing on MacArthur Causeway in Miami for a photoshoot for Island Queen Cruises, which provides sightseeing cruises in Miami. I decide to be a little creative with my Blackberry Edge. So I snapped this photo!

The Drive to Name the Decades Helps Complete Half Ironman

2009-04-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

The same passion and drive to name the decades, 00s and 10s, has helped Ryan Guerra complete the Miami Man Half Ironman triathlon.