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up vote 13 down vote favorite 
80s the "Eighties"
90s the "Nineties"
00s the ???

For that matter, what is the second decade called? The "tens" just doesn't sound right.

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You might have a look at the answers to this essentially identical question which was asked yesterday: english.stackexchange.com/questions/941/nineteen-hundreds – Chris Aug 16 '10 at 19:13
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That one appears to be about the previous century, whereas I am asking specifically about about decades as they are named in any century. – Chris Noe Aug 17 '10 at 0:48
@Chris: it's now the second time someone has repeated one of my questions. Copycatting to get votes? – delete Aug 17 '10 at 0:51
I just want to know what to call the last ten years! – Atømix Aug 23 '10 at 19:55
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What surprises me is that, starting with the year 2010, English-speaking people didn't switch over to saying "twenty ten" instead of "two thousand ten." After all, the common way to say the year "1066" is "ten sixty-six", isn't it? In 2066, will our descendants be referring to the new year as "two thousand sixty-six"? Or will that form not occur until the 22nd century forces "twenty-one oh one" on the populace in preference to "two thousand one hundred one," and people accustomed to saying "twenty-one XX" eventually back-form "twenty thirteen" and the like? – Sven Yargs Mar 5 at 22:59
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7 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

Those living in early twentieth century called the years 1900-1909 "The Aughts".

This Wikipedia article provides some more context.

Aside: the Oxford English Dictionary has an entertaining feature on what to call the first decade of a century.

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The Wikipedia article says something different from what you've said and gives no proof or evidence of its "aught" statement. – delete Aug 16 '10 at 4:06
From Wikipedia: "The aughts", or "naughts" was one of the more popular contemporary terms for this decade. – Portman Aug 23 '10 at 18:33
it gives no proof or evidence of that. – delete Sep 3 '10 at 4:16
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The entertaining feature link is broken. – Danny May 28 '12 at 16:13
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My grandfather always spoke of the year he was born as "nineteen-aught-three." In my generation, though, we called it "nineteen-oh-three." Interestingly, no one answering this question has suggested calling the first decade of a century "The O's." – Sven Yargs Feb 23 at 21:31
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up vote 0 down vote

Generally I've never heard anybody refer to the "2000's" as anything other than the decade. Usually if we want to refer to the century 2000's, we'll say "the 21st century".

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up vote 0 down vote

The "Noughties" became a fairly standard term pretty quickly, at least in the UK. But I've still yet to hear anyone give a good term for the decade from 2010-2019.

If I had to guess what term is most likely to emerge for 2010-2019, I'd say perhaps "The Teens", but I suspect actually no term will catch on until the Twenty-Twenties.

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Is there any pronunciation difference between "noughties" and "naughties"? – mmyers Aug 23 '10 at 16:08
No. There was a phrase some magazines used, "the Naughty Noughties", which has the first and second word pronounced identically apart from the final "z". That phrase still has 20k Google hits, actually. – AlexC Aug 23 '10 at 16:21
In that case, it seems that it would be awkward to use in conversation. – mmyers Aug 24 '10 at 4:16
I'd probably say "the twenty tens" for 2010-2019 myself. – Joe Z. Feb 24 at 5:59
up vote 0 down vote

I can only think of "the single digits" to call the first nine years of the new millennium.

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up vote 5 down vote

I've heard "the noughties" (easy transition from "nineties") and "the two-thousands" (literal interpretation of "2000s") for the decade just gone. I think this is something that doesn't have a real answer as it appears to change with each century and is different depending on your location.

Wikipedia's entry for the 2000s echoes this inability for people to come up with a single name for this decade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_(decade)#Names_for_the_decade) let alone all "first decades of a century".

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Here it is in form of a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_%28decade%29#Names_for_the_decade – Kobi Aug 16 '10 at 8:55
Sorry, I falsely assumed the site would auto detect hyperlinks. blush Now edited. – soutarm Aug 16 '10 at 11:12
@soutarm, It usually does, but it can have problems with brackets. – TRiG Jul 3 '11 at 20:00
up vote 2 down vote

In my circle I have usually heard the previous decade referred to as "the two-thousands". As to whether it might be called that in 30 years or so, it's hard to tell. I agree that "the tens" sounds weird, but isn't that because you'd say "the teens" instead?

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up vote -2 down vote

I would call 1900-1909 the nineteen hundreds. This usage seems to have been corrupted though.

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I would have said that the "nineteen hundreds" refers to the entire century, not the first decade of it. – Colin Mackay Aug 16 '10 at 8:44
As I mentioned, the usage seems to have been corrupted. – delete Aug 17 '10 at 0:40
Corrupted? Or corrected? I've yet to see evidence of its use only as the first 10 years. Surely, if I were to say "Some feel the dark ages started in the twelve-hundreds" it wouldn't be so limited. – Atømix Aug 23 '10 at 19:54
Hum, lack of education on your parts, I think. – delete Aug 23 '10 at 21:59

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