The history of the term Generation X is complicated and confusing. Boomers were the original Generation X.

The term Generation X has been used at various times to describe alienated youth. In the early 1950s, Hungarian photographer Robert Capa first used Generation X as the title for a photo-essay about young men and women growing up immediately following World War II. The term first appeared in print in a December 1952 issue of Holiday magazine announcing their upcoming publication of Capa’s photo-essay.[7] From 1976 to 1981, English musician Billy Idol used the moniker as the name for his punk rock band.[8] Idol had attributed the name of his band to the book Generation X, a 1964 book on British popular youth culture written by journalists Jane Deverson and Charles Hamblett[9][10]—a copy of which had been owned by Idol’s mother.[11] These uses of the term appear to have no connection to Robert Capa’s photo-essay.[7]

The term acquired a modern application after the release of Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, a 1991 novel written by Canadian author Douglas Coupland; however, the definition used there is “born in the late 1950s and 1960s”, which is about ten years earlier than definitions that came later.[12][13][9][14] In 1987, Coupland had written a piece in Vancouver Magazine titled “Generation X” which was “the seed of what went on to become the book”.[15][16] Coupland referenced Billy Idol’s band Generation X in the 1987 article and again in 1989 in Vista magazine.[17] In the book proposal for his novel, Coupland writes that Generation X is “taken from the name of Billy Idol’s long-defunct punk band of the late 1970s”.[18] However, in 1995 Coupland denied the term’s connection to the band, stating that:

The book’s title came not from Billy Idol’s band, as many supposed, but from the final chapter of a funny sociological book on American class structure titled Class, by Paul Fussell. In his final chapter, Fussell named an ‘X’ category of people who wanted to hop off the merry-go-round of status, money, and social climbing that so often frames modern existence.[19][15]

Author William Strauss noted that around the time Coupland’s 1991 novel was published the symbol “X” was prominent in popular culture, as the film Malcolm X was released in 1992, and that the name “Generation X” ended up sticking. The “X” refers to an unknown variable or to a desire not to be defined.[20][21][14] Strauss’s coauthor Neil Howe noted the delay in naming this demographic cohort saying, “Over 30 years after their birthday, they didn’t have a name. I think that’s germane.” Previously, the cohort had been referred to as Post-Boomers, Baby Busters (which refers to the drop in birth rates following the baby boom in the western world, particularly in the U.S.[where?]),[22] New Lost Generation, latchkey kids, MTV Generation, and the 13th Generation (the 13th generation since American independence).[8][20][17][23][24]