Who Coined The Phrase Baby Boomers?

By >Michael Thompson

Many historians and analysts insist that the phrase "baby boom" was created specifically to describe a sharp rise in childbirths after World War II.

However, the Web site English-for-students.com reveals that the term was in use long before. One example comes from The Coshocton (England) Tribune from April 1920:

"There is a 'baby boom' in London. Births during the first six months of this year have broken all records."

So it seems the term is post-war, all right -- post-World War I. But instead of shattering the myths and egos of today's boomers, English-for-students.com offers the following reassurance: "THE Baby Boom -- as opposed to 'a baby boom' -- refers to the increase in population in the countries that were victorious in WWII. The period is generally regarded as beginning in 1946 and ending in the mid-1960s."

An obscure point of history is that America did have a small surge in childbirths during 1941, the year that closed with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December. No valid surveys were conducted, but commentators speculated that some men became fathers in order to avoid the draft.

Many American sentiments were isolationist until Pearl Harbor. The Galveston (Texas) Daily News reported days before Pearl Harbor, "Baby Boom Increases Population of U.S."

The news media quickly noticed a sharp rise in childbirths that began in 1946, after Germany and Japan succumbed. Time and Newsweek magazines both ran baby boom features in 1948, although not in-depth ones. Time treated the story as a short business item, noting that "2.8 million more consumers" were added to the population, and quoted the National Industrial Conference Board: "The significance to businessmen can hardly be overestimated."

Later in the U.S. baby boom, from the middle 1950s into the early 1960s, birthrates exceeded 4 million "new consumers" for eight years in a row. The number of children born during the 1950s was 32 million, a one-third increase over 24 million during the 1940s.

Time and Newsweek magazines were not as popular during 1948 as they are today. As a result, the Web site Wikipedia.com is among many sources that say the baby boom first reached America's popular conscience in 1951 through the words of Sylvia Porter, a nationally syndicated personal finance columnist who reached a peak circulation of 40 million.

"Take the 3,548,000 babies born in 1950," Porter wrote during the following year. "Bundle them into a batch, bounce them all over the bountiful land that is America. What do you get? Boom. The biggest, boomiest boom ever known in history."

As for the designation of baby boomer, the Web site Senioradvocatenews.com reports that 45 percent like the name, 38 percent somewhat favor the status, and 17 percent don't like being lumped into the group. For that matter, one analyst doesn't like the strict 1946-1964 birth window to define a boomer.

Ann Althouse, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says a boomer should be defined "as someone whose parents lived through World War II and the Depression."

For example, presidential candidate Barack Obama was born within the window during 1961, but considers himself a "post-boomer." His mother was born in 1942. Meanwhile, vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin was born in 1964 but her parents are older. Althouse considers Palin more of a boomer than Obama.

"Being a boomer has to do with who your parents were," Althouse writes. "Parents who lived through the Depression and WWII ... thought it was the greatest thing just to have a normal, nice family life. So they had us."