Name This Decade Contest!

Update: We've got some winners! Go to the bottom.

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Well, this decade is almost gone (or 82% gone to be precise). And still no name!

A little over eight years ago in January, 2000, I thought this decade would be known as the "oohs" (pronounced "ooze") because it every year in it had two (or more) zeroes and they looked like the "o's" in "oohs." So obvious!

If that didn't happen, then at the very least I thought this time period would come to be called the "ohs" (pronounced like "those" without the "th").

Well, neither of those caught on. Hmmm.

I guess we've got an opportunity.

Flex your creative muscles and come up with a fun and/or descriptive moniker for this decade. (I'm interested to see what you come up with.)

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Thanks for the great suggestions (keep 'em coming). My two favorites are:

• "The Double Ohs" (I think I'd even use this one, such as five years from now I might say, "Do you remember what you were doing with Jim back in the early double ohs?"
• "The Pre-Teens" (This is just plain clever and funny. I don't know, though, if I would actually use it.)

Comments

[Chris]

I've often heard this decade referred to as the "noughties" (pronounced like "naughty" with an s on the end)

[Phil]

The noughties, obviously!

[Matthew Sanborn Smith]

Since the nineties, I've been thinking that this decade should be called the "naughties" after naughts for zeroes. I wanted to spread this worldwide, but had no platform. I saw that science fiction writer, Charles Stross, used the term "naughties" for this decade in his blog last year.

[avalok]

"2.ooo"

[L.Vazquez]

I always figured it'd be something like "the two-thousands" ...but, that doesn't make sense.

Wow, this is a hard one. This has been a crazy decade so far. I'll have to give this one some thought.

[Venkat]

I guess I like my naming horizons a little longer than yours. I recently declared this entire century to be The Century of Food. But I will take baby steps by entering my candidate as the decadal winner of your contest. What do I win? :)

But more seriously, here are several others:

1. The decade we learned we didn't know how to manage financial risks after all, clever derivative instruments notwithstanding.

2. The decade we first dismissed and then took seriously, the phenomenon of Web 2.0

3. The George Bush decade

4. The decade we finally paid attention to the big problems (green house, running out of gas, running out of water).

[David Zinger]

The Double-Oh Decade: Licence to Thrill and Shrill.

[Derrick Kwa]

Awesome question. Haha. I love David Zinger's "Double-Oh" suggestion, though. I'm not really that creative, so can't think of anything much.

And besides, due to my age, I don't really know where this decade stands in comparison to others. ;).

[Bill Morgan]

I also had hopes for "The Noughties", but it hasn't worked out that way...

[Bill Machi]

How about the pre-teens?

[Gavin Heaton]

I also like the Double-Oh (like Cool McCool).

But really, I am thinking it is like Oh, Oh! As in "the sound we make when something goes wrong". Seems like we are being constantly confounded, pausing, and then moving on as quickly as possible!

[Sue London]

I really like the pre-teens! That's funny!

I've been thinking that this decade will be called the 'thousands. Note the apostrophe - it should be the two thousands, but that's too long so we'll shorten it.

Much like the decade itself it won't entirely make sense but will sound sort of cool... if you don't think about it too much.

[Cam Beck]

I always heard it would be called the "aughts" (Pronounced "oughts").

As in: I ought to have done x.

The decade that falls between 2011 and 2020 would be called the "wills."

As in: I will do x.

[Peter Hoh]

the OOps decade.

[Otto]

Forget George Bush or terrorists...this decade it became clear we have created even bigger problems.

I propose the "water" decade. Water has become our biggest enemy: we already face a shortage of clean, potable water, while, oh irony, we face being submerged by 10 feet of it once our polar ice caps have stopped melting.

[Randy]

The "naught" decade sounds good -- lots of allegedly big ideas, hyperole, cant and rhetoric that, I believe history will show, came to "naught" - and if some prove out, remember that "no good deed goes unpunished"!

[Phyllis A Rogers]

I'd cast my vote with the "Oh-No" decade, as in, "Oh-no, we're at war", "Oh-no the ice caps are melting", "Oh-no, we can't educate our children properly", "Oh-no, no one can afford health care", etc. And, in honor of the big hoopla coming into the year 2000.

[Randy Frushour]

Weeeeeell ... I think the riddle answer is faita compli the "twenty zeros" as at the height of the online poll, well before I was even around the internet during those days doing other things, Chief Editors of the OE and the M-Webster announced the answer would come out of pop culture which is where I plastered the cultural engineers (search engines) with nomenclature about the whole matter and all one need do is search any engine the phrase "decade name" and voila'. Thanks for the award now we need to plaster streets, cable media editors, hollywood and madison ave with the two word alpha-numeric title. Say it a number of casual ways such as mentions at the website here below like the "20 O's" or the "20 Z's," the "T Z's" etc etc
signed ZDecade

[Ryan Guerra]

The Unies! The years between 0 & 9 are only one digit and uni means one. Unicycle, unicorn. It also is a pre-fix that means to make one. University is a bunch of colleges. Uniformity. This word works for the weather, ages and numbers. For example, "Temperatures are getting cold, in the low to mid-unies." or "I'm in my thirties and my little sister is in her unies" or "Kobe Bryant's rebound average fell to the upper-unies" Check out three videos on you tube: Good Morning Columbia, WLTX, New York City

[Cathy Ferreira]

I think Ryan has something going here with naming this decade "The Unies." I enjoyed the videos that he has on "You Tube." He took this concept to the next level with news coverage and promoting on the streets of NYC. Anyway I can get a t-shirt to support "The Unies?"

[Tom Dempsey]

For a short reference to the decade that started with Y2K I like "The 2K's". It also works well in phrases like "Greatest Hits of the 80's, 90's, and 2K's."

[Ryan Guerra]

Again, the question is not about naming the decade. It is about coming up with a word that groups the numbers between 0 & 9. When we think about the 1990s. We use the word that is easiest to remember, 90s. The word ninety is the numbers between 90 and 99. I don't understand why people don't understand this dilemma. Use your head people. Tom Dempsey refer to this decade as 2k's. I'm sorry but you just don't get it do ya! 2ks can be used for every decade between 2k and 3k, literally. 2020 is part of the 2ks, so is 2150 that is part of the 2ks. Check out the videos and see why I have links and not other people.

[Tom Dempsey]

In a strict sense you are correct Ryan Guerra that 2K's refers to more than the decade, but I'm sure people will be able to distinguish the meaning.

2K's gives a greater feeling and understanding for this decade -- we have moved from roman numerals (MM) and arabic numerals (2000) to the language of the computer age (2K). There are many social, political, and religious conflicts between the old and the new ways. Both the new and the old have to wrestle with the complications of the computer age. To me, using "2K's" adds a dimension beyond merely naming the decade.

[David Theil]

I always liked the "naughties". I tried to spread it around in 2000, but it never got any traction; maybe when it is referred to in the past tense. . . I think "naughties" is far funnier and apropos than "the Pre-teens."

For the next, I like "the Teenies" instead of the "teens".

[Pat Stat]

Great question.

Unless we figure this out, radio DJs will have a fun time in 2013 saying:

"We play the best of the '90s, the decade containing the years 2000 to 2009, and the tens (or teens)!"

My suggestion is probably just "ohs". Yeah, I'm boring. So. Heh. Yeah, I don't think people are going to accept anything too complicating. "Aughts" will never fly, not in casual conversation. It sounds like old people.

Anyway, this question brings about another.

We call this year "two thousand eight", but what about 2010, 2015, 2035?

"Twenty fifteen" and the like sounds better. I'm sure we'll switch from "thousand" to "twenty" by the early 2010s. (Which BTW will be "twenty tens" for long, and "tens" or "teens" for short. I prefer "tens".)