I've known what a Baby Boomer is for a long time, since I'm a member of that large and privileged group. My father, who contributed in no small way to the size of that specific group, described it, with a wink and a smirk that might have been a leer, as "a soldier's reaction to the relief of getting the pack off his back". I'm not sure how much pack-carrying he did, since he spent the war years as an aircraft mechanic travelling around Africa in the Monarch of Bermuda, a liner converted to be a troop ship, and then supporting Monty in his pursuit of Rommell, in which they travelled mostly by lorry. It seems that the definition of a Baby Boomer is someone born between 1946 and 1964, although I would argue that my late brother Chris was also a Boomer, even though he was born in October 1945.
In recent months I've heard references to something called "millennials" and I recently read an article which referred to a "Gen Z" as well. A google indicated that there are every generation has its label, which is news to me and may well be of USAnian origin and therefore not universally acknowledged. They are:
Greatest Generation: Born 1901-1924
Silent Generation: Born 1925-1945
Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964
Generation X: Born 1965-1980
Millennials: Born 1981-1996
Generation Z: Born 1997-2012
Generation Alpha: Born 2013-2025
I've no idea when the "Greatest" and "Silent" generations received their titles, since they have been around all my life and I have never, before googling
this article, heard of them, and I don't think I've ever heard of Generation X or Generation Alpha either. The article in question refers to AI, which is also a closed book to me.
Am I a victim of an elaborate hoax or are these labels genuinely "A Thing". If so, when did they start being A Thing, and whose idea was it?