I heard from many of you that you were disappointed I hadn't suggested a name for the new, post-Y generation in last week's post. One of you asked how the whole naming of the generations business happens anyway. Regarding the latter question, frankly that is a bit of a wild card - it's really whatever sticks. Baby Boomers was pretty straightforward (there was a boom in the number of babies), although people tried other names (the Me Generation was one I remember). Gen X came from a novel written by Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture although this generation, as well, as been offered other tags (Slackers being one of the most dreadful).

I guess my assessment is that we collectively end up settling on names that don't have a strong negative connotation (like the Me Generation or Slackers would) and we resist names that are too narrow - focusing on only one aspect of the generation. That's why I suspect various other names for Gen Y haven't really stuck. Millennials speaks to their births spanning the turn of the century; NetGen addresses their comfort with technology.

But, let's agree that Generation Z would be just plain awful. We can do better. Please, let's not use that for these poor kids.

Here's my suggestion: The Re-Generation, or Re-Gens for short.

I think the Re-Generation has a number of appropriate associations:

Reality - This generation will come of age in a world that is grappling with some difficult, inconvenient truths. They will form a mental map based on a world with finite limits and no easy answers.

Realists - Theirs will be a generation of pragmatists, raised by their down-to-earth Gen X parents to consider trade-offs and long-term balance.

Restraint and Responsibility - Necessary postures for them to adopt

Renewable energy, Recycling, Reducing carbon emissions, and Resource limitations - Challenges they will face

Self-Reliance - Their X'er parents' dominant trait, along with Resentment that older adults have been poor stewards of our world

Recession - Hopefully not something they'll face throughout their formative years, but demographics alone make it likely that economic conditions over the next decade will be more conservative than the upbeat decades past

Rethink, Renew, and Regenerate - The challenges for this generation

What do you think? Will that name work?

For those of you with children in the under-13 age group, ask them how they'd feel about being part of the Re-Generation.