What Should We Have Been Calling the 2000’s?

Posted on 03/19/201103/20/2011 by Backpacking Dad

I just want to go on record, here, now, where and when it no longer matters and no one would believe me, and even the people who believe me won’t care:

I came up with calling the decade between 2000 and 2009 “The Naughties”.

Seventies, Eighties, Nineties…Naughties.

In case it’s not clear why: 0 is also known as “naught”.

So, 2000 is “naughty”, 2001 is “naughty-one”, and so on.

I thought of this in the nineties, but I didn’t have a blog back then. I used the expression whenever I remembered, during the actual decade, but, alas, to my knowledge it never caught on. Now, my friends, you may go forth and proselytize; spread the word of Shawn, and know that the word is “Naughty”.

14 thoughts on “What Should We Have Been Calling the 2000’s?”

meghann @ midgetinva says:

03/19/2011 at 11:40 PM

I vote for bringing back the word "aught". Most of the people from the 1900's who used it are all dead, so we can claim it. Then we can say things like "I remember when Hurricane Katrina happened in aught five."
1. Backpacking Dad says:
  
  03/21/2011 at 1:54 PM
  
  That's a good point about that generation being gone. We can indeed claim it. Lacks salaciousness, though.
Karen6460 says:

03/20/2011 at 6:32 AM

my daughter graduated in the year 2000. At the pep rallies, it took them a while to figure out what they could chant…….there was the class of ninety-EIGHT…..ninety-NINE….and two-thousAND? Didn't work. so they resorted to Y2K!
1. Backpacking Dad says:
  
  03/21/2011 at 1:53 PM
  
  They could have been the Naughties all along…
Headless Mom says:

03/20/2011 at 9:10 AM

brilliant.
1. Backpacking Dad says:
  
  03/21/2011 at 1:53 PM
  
  Thank you, thank you.
Casey Freeland says:

03/20/2011 at 11:07 AM

I love this. Thank you. Now can you please help me with 2010 and 2011. They suck.

Cheers,

Casey
1. Backpacking Dad says:
  
  03/21/2011 at 1:52 PM
  
  Please to be seeing my next post.
Opus says:

03/20/2011 at 11:53 AM

I'm trying to remember my vow to use '2 thousand' for the years 2000-2009 and 'twenty' starting in 2010. It's not working very well.
1. Backpacking Dad says:
  
  03/21/2011 at 1:52 PM
  
  I feel like this is a little to the side. We already said "nineteen" before "seventy" "eighty" etc…So the analogue with "twenty" is already there for giving the four-digit name. But "seventies" and "eighties" don't have an analogue when the digits are "00" and "10". So while you are correct to point out the difficulty of giving a consistent or comfortable nomenclature to the four-digit names of the decades, that's a separate issue.
  
  :}
Bethany says:

03/21/2011 at 5:49 AM

We can call this a retro trend. Much smoother to say than all that awkward "two-thousands" nonsense…
1. Backpacking Dad says:
  
  03/21/2011 at 1:47 PM
  
  Agreed.
2. Backpacking Dad says:
  
  03/21/2011 at 8:47 PM
  
  Agreed.
Bethany says:

03/21/2011 at 12:49 PM

We can call this a retro trend. Much smoother to say than all that awkward “two-thousands” nonsense…

Comments are closed.