Millennials Millennials Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the generational demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. There are no precise dates for when this cohort starts or ends; demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years. Millennials are sometimes referred to as "echo boomers" due to a major surge in birth rates in the 1980s and 1990s, and because millennials are often the children of the baby boomers. Although millennial characteristics vary by region, depending on social and economic conditions,
Generation X article. Demographer William Strauss observed that Coupland applied the term to older members of the cohort born between 1961 and 1964, who were sometimes told by demographers that they were baby boomers, but who did not feel like boomers. Strauss also noted that around the time Coupland's 1991 novel was published the symbol "X" was prominent in popular culture, as the film "Malcolm X" was released in 1992, and that the name "Generation X" ended up sticking. The "X" refers to an unknown variable or to a desire not to be defined. Demographer Neil Howe noted the delay in naming