A 1993 opinion piece in Newsweek, for example, takes issue with them: “We have a generation (or at least part of a generation) whose every need has been catered to since birth. Early on, they were the target of the same kinds of press coverage as any other young generation gets. The fact that Gen X came so late to a name is a symptom of the generation’s larger problem of definition. It also kicked off the whole naming convention, with Generation Y (more commonly called the millennials), Generation Z and, for those being born now, Generation Alpha. Other names had been thrown around for the new group of children, including the “baby busters,” the “thirteeners,” and, perhaps most doomed to die, the “twentysomething generation.” What’s really most shocking is that Gen X didn’t become popular until the 1990s, which is after the term “millennial” was coined in reference to the following generation.

He took the name from either a band that Billy Idol was once a part of, which itself was likely a reference to a 1952 photo essay about youth culture that used the same name (though it did not catch on at that time).Ĭoupland wasn’t the first person to realize that his generation was separate from the baby boomers. Generation X was the title of a 1991 novel by Douglas Coupland, who wanted to write about the people born between 19, because he thought it was important to define the difference between baby boomers and his own generation. At that point, it wasn’t a common practice to name every generation, and Gen X came to its name relatively late. The baby boomer generation was named after the massive increase in the birthrate, particularly in the United States, following the end of World War II. One of the ways that Gen X stands out from other generations is that it took a while to form. There’s no widespread agreement on generations, however, so you might see estimates that differ slightly. As of this writing, that means Gen Xers range from 41 to 56. The Pew Research Group says that Generation X comprises the people born from 1965 to 1980.

So let’s dive into this particular dialect, starting with a look at who exactly is a member of this generation. Yet every generation differs slightly in how it communicates, whether a person speaks English or any other language. When we talk about Gen X language, we don’t mean that they speak a different language than the other generations.

Is Gen X simply different from the others somehow, or is there something else at play? A good way to answer this questions is by looking at Gen X language. Compared to the other generations, Gen X doesn’t seem to be very clearly defined. With endless media attention given to baby boomers, millennials and zoomers, it sometimes feels like Generation X has been totally forgotten.

Generation X by Douglas Coupland