What’s in a name? It’s a

years ago, there was a fair amount of discussion as to the terminology we would use for the naming of the years for the upcoming century.

With 2018 upon us, possibly the jury is still out on that issue and maybe we won’t settle on a particular terminology. Do we call it two thousand and eighteen or twenty-eighteen? Well, who cares, you might say but historically it may be interesting to look at what

Ian Cole

may have influenced and will influence the nomenclature that we use.

Back in the 1960s Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. It was always called two thousand and one A Space Odyssey, never twenty o one A Space Odyssey. One wonders how much that influenced the naming of the early years of this century.

For example, in most cases, 2003 was pronounced two thousand and three, not twenty o three.

However, history may tell us that somewhere along the years, maybe after the first decade, our terminology began to change and possibly has already. So, for a historical example, if we read the date 1642, we are more likely to say sixteen forty-two than sixteen hundred and forty-two and far less likely to say one thousand six hundred and forty-two.

Likewise 1788 is more likely to be seventeen eighty-eight. That is, we use the first two digits as if we are counting from one to twenty. On that basis, the year 2025 may be