The researcher who popularized 'Gen Beta' explains why the name fits the next generation
Courtesy of McCrindle
- 2025 marked the birth of the new generation — Gen Beta.
- Mark McCrindle, whose research firm coined Gen Alpha, says the name has no inherent meaning.
- But he argues that "Beta" is fitting considering it signifies an "updated version" or the "2.0."
The year 2025 marked the introduction of a new generation, at least according to demographers at McCrindle, an Australia-based research firm that claims credit for coining the name of the preceding generation, Gen Alpha.
Generation Beta, or Gen Beta, the firm said in a research report, is represented by those born between 2025 and 2039. Their parents will be younger millennials and older Gen Zs, and many will live to see the next millennium, the report said.
On social media, the naming convention was quickly met with some jeering as "Beta" is sometimes colloquially used as a pejorative to refer to a weaker person — often a man — instead of the "Alpha."
Mark McCrindle, the firm's founder, is aware of the reaction but told Business Insider that Gen Beta was not meant to be derogatory.
"It does follow from that naming convention we introduced with Alpha," McCrindle said.
When naming Gen Alpha, the demographer said his firm went with Greek letters rather than the Roman alphabet — as with Gen Z — because it wanted to signify a "whole new generation, a whole new era."
"We didn't want to go back to 'A' because this is the first generation born in the 21st century," he said. "We're not a repeat of the old."
From there, the names of the next generations could follow a predictable, sequential path — Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on, he said.
The name itself has no inherent meaning, but if one insists on finding one, McCrindle said there's a case to be made for Gen Beta.
"If we even think about the general use of beta, in a software or technology sense — it's the new and improved version. It's the updated version. It's the 2.0. And that's what I think of beta as, and I think that's perfectly appropriate," McCrindle said.
Gen Beta and the third digital revolution
Generations preceding Gen Beta saw significant technological shifts.
Millennials and Gen Z experienced the rise and domination of the internet, and Gen Alpha came into a world where the connected world fit into people's pockets with the smartphone, McCrindle said.
Gen Beta, the researcher said, will be shaped by the third digital revolution — artificial intelligence.
"While Generation Alpha has experienced the rise of smart technology and artificial intelligence, Generation Beta will live in an era where AI and automation are fully embedded in everyday life — from education and workplaces to healthcare and entertainment," the McCrindle report said.
Simultaneously, the ubiquity of AI will come in the backdrop of Gen Z parents who are more familiar — and wary — of the impacts of technology such as social media.
Gen Beta "will be going to schools where teachers are informed through AI, so it'll be everywhere," McCrindle said, "but the parents will bring more of a constraint to its use rather than just a bright-eyed optimism. That's a big change."
The researcher imagines a scenario in which parents of Gen Beta will be more deliberate about their children's time on and off technology even as it becomes more seamless. For example, parents may emphasize the importance of spending time outdoors.
Still, even if AI blends seamlessly into our lives, McCrindle said the future will be human even hundreds of years from now.
"Technology comes and goes, but the timeless human drivers of connection, relationship, hope, understanding, and trust — all of that is timeless," he said. "We sort of forget that amidst all of the novelty and the invention and the change, there are timeless human needs and there are things that do not change amidst the changes."