• 154 team names

2000s Trivia Team Names Generator

Press Pick 5 new team names, then copy or print them, from flip phones to a decade nobody could name.

2000s Trivia Team Names Generator

All 154
  1. Burn RateIn business, burn rate is how fast a company spends its cash. In the 2000s it was also how fast your drive wrote a disc.
  2. Text Speak No EvilSpeak no evil, from the three wise monkeys, crossed with text speak.
  3. ROFL, Still on the FloorROFL stands for rolling on the floor laughing. We have not got up since the scores were read.
  4. Voted Off FirstReality shows of the decade sent one contestant home each week. Somebody has to go first.
  5. Not RespondingThe words in the title line of a frozen program. Also us, when the host asks for a volunteer.

Next step Burnt a mix? See the music namesAct out a film at charades

All 154 team names

Flip phones and texting 22

  • 160 Characters or Fewer One text message held up to 160 characters, which is why the vowels went missing.
  • All Thumbs To be all thumbs is to be clumsy. Texting on a keypad was done with thumbs alone.
  • Flip Phone a Friend Phone a friend, the quiz lifeline, made on a handset that snaps shut.
  • Flipping Geniuses What the phone did every time it rang. We flip to the right answer about as smoothly.
  • Four Presses for a Z Z sits last on the 9 key, after W, X and Y, so typing the word quiz by thumb was slow going.
  • Free Nights and Weekends A phrase from 2000s phone plans: calls at those hours did not use up your minutes, so that is when everyone called.
  • Hang Up With a Snap A flip phone ended a call by snapping shut. Our captain ends a debate the same way.
  • Happy as a Clamshell Happy as a clam. Clamshell is the design term for a phone whose two halves fold shut.
  • Hinge Benefits Fringe benefits, moved to the hinge of a flip phone. Ours include a satisfying snap.
  • Low Battery, High Hopes One blinking segment left on the battery icon, and a full evening planned.
  • No Signal Down Here What the corner of the screen said in every basement. It is also our excuse for not checking anything.
  • Out of Minutes What a 2000s phone plan ran out of before the month did.
  • Pocket Dialed the Host A pocket dial is a call a phone makes by itself from a pocket or bag. Some of our answers happen the same way.
  • The Polyphonic Ringtones A polyphonic ringtone could play several notes at once. The first ringtones managed one note at a time.
  • Predictive Text Nerds Predictive text guessed the word from one key press per letter. It was wrong about as often as we are.
  • Prepaid and Underprepared A prepaid phone ran on credit bought in advance. We did no work in advance at all.
  • Press Seven Four Times On a number keypad the letter S took four presses of the 7 key, which carries P, Q, R and S.
  • Ringtone Deaf Tone deaf, with a ring in front. For the team that dreads the music round.
  • Roaming Charges The fee for using a phone outside its home network. This team wanders off the question at a similar cost.
  • This Mailbox Is Full The recorded message when a voicemail box could take no more. Our heads feel the same after round six.
  • Txt Us the Answrs Text us the answers, with vowels dropped to save space. A joke for the answer sheet: read aloud, it sounds normal.
  • We're on Speed Dial Speed dial put a whole number under one key. For the team the host already knows by name.

Chat-speak and away messages 24

  • Appear Offline Chat programs let you look signed out while still watching. This team does it during the math round.
  • Away Message: At the Quiz An away message told your chat contacts why you were not replying.
  • BRB, Winning BRB is chat-speak for be right back. Read out with the scores, it sounds like a promise.
  • Buddy List of Six A buddy list showed which friends were online. Ours shows who turned up tonight.
  • Caps Lock Is Shouting Online, a message typed in capitals reads as shouting. Our captain fills in the answer sheet the same way.
  • Colon Parenthesis A smiley face, spelled out. Before emoji, punctuation did the smiling.
  • Emoticontestants Emoticon plus contestants. It reads aloud cleanly, which many chat jokes do not.
  • First! In the Comments Only Commenters raced to type First! under anything new. It is the only place this team comes first.
  • G2G, Got to Guess G2G meant got to go. Here it admits how most of our answers are made.
  • IDK Is Our Final Answer IDK stands for I don't know. Hosts have been handed it as an answer since texting began.
  • JK, We Knew That JK means just kidding, typed after anything you wanted to take back.
  • Lurkers, Not Posters A lurker reads a forum and never posts. We know the answer and never say it.
  • N00bs With Two Zeros Leetspeak swapped letters for look-alike digits, so a newbie became a n00b. Said aloud, the zeros vanish.
  • NVM, We Changed It NVM is never mind. For the team whose answer sheet is mostly crossings-out.
  • Pwned by the History Round Pwned began as a slip of the finger for owned, since P sits beside O on a keyboard. It means soundly beaten.
  • ROFL, Still on the Floor ROFL stands for rolling on the floor laughing. We have not got up since the scores were read.
  • Screen Name Pending A screen name was the handle you chose at thirteen and had to live with. We are still deciding.
  • Sparkly Cursor Trail Personal pages could swap the mouse pointer for one that shed glitter. Nothing loaded quickly.
  • Status: It's Complicated A relationship status offered by social profiles. It describes us and the geography round.
  • Text Speak No Evil Speak no evil, from the three wise monkeys, crossed with text speak.
  • Thread Hijackers To hijack a thread is to drag a forum discussion off its topic. We do it to every question about geography.
  • TTYL, Last Place TTYL means talk to you later: a goodbye to the bottom of the table.
  • Weblog Cabin Log cabin, with the web in front. Blog is a shortening of weblog.
  • xX Quiz Kids Xx Screen names of the decade came framed in Xs. A joke for the answer sheet, because no host can pronounce it.

Burnt CDs and MP3 players 20

  • 128 Kilobits of Knowledge 128 kilobits per second was a common quality setting for an MP3: a small file that sounded good enough.
  • A Spindle of Blanks Blank CDs came stacked on a plastic spindle. Blanks are also what we hand in for the science round.
  • All Those Songs, Same Twelve Played An MP3 player carried a whole music collection, and its owner played the same dozen tracks.
  • Bonus Track Record Track record, with a bonus track on the end. Ours is mixed.
  • Buffer Underrun The error when a computer fed data too slowly to a disc in mid-burn, which ruined the disc. Nobody touch anything while we think.
  • Burn Rate In business, burn rate is how fast a company spends its cash. In the 2000s it was also how fast your drive wrote a disc.
  • The CD Binder A zip-up binder of plastic sleeves that held a whole music collection under a car seat.
  • Cracked Jewel Cases A jewel case is the hinged plastic box a CD came in. It cracked at the hinge the first time it was dropped.
  • Insert Disc Two What a computer asked for halfway through installing a big game.
  • Labeled in Permanent Marker The track list of a burnt CD was written on the disc itself, in marker, in a hurry.
  • Lossy Compression An MP3 shrinks a song by discarding sound most people cannot hear. Our memories of the decade work the same way.
  • Mix CD for the Drive Home The burnt CD took over from the mixtape: a run of songs picked for one person, with the titles on a folded note.
  • On Shuffle Shuffle plays songs in random order, which is also how we fill in the answer sheet.
  • One Earbud Each Two friends, one pair of wired earbuds, one ear apiece: how a song was shared on the bus.
  • Rewritable History Rewriting history, by disc. A CD-RW could be erased and written again, like our answer to question four.
  • Scratched Disc Jockeys Disc jockeys, with a scratch. A DJ scratches on purpose; a CD left loose in a car did not.
  • Stuck at 99 Percent Where every download of the decade paused to think.
  • Syncing Feeling Sinking feeling, spelled for an MP3 player that is copying songs and must not be unplugged.
  • Tangled Earbuds Wired earbuds went into a pocket straight and came out in a knot, every time.
  • Unknown Artist, Track 01 What a computer called the first song on a home-burnt CD when nobody had typed the titles in.

Aughts, noughties and Y2K 11

  • All for Noughties All for nought, meaning all for nothing. The noughties is the British name for the decade.
  • Aught Couture Haute couture is high fashion. Aught is zero, and the fashion of the aughts ran to trucker hats.
  • Aught to Know Better Ought to know better. Aught is an old word for zero, which gave the aughts their name.
  • Aughts and Crosses Noughts and crosses is the Commonwealth name for tic-tac-toe. The aughts is the American name for the 2000s.
  • Double Zero Heroes Double zeros is one of several spoken names for the '00s. No single name was accepted the way the eighties or nineties were.
  • Much Ado About Noughties Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare's comedy, with the British name for the decade standing in for nothing, which is what nought means.
  • New Millennium, Same Guesses A new thousand years began, and our method did not change.
  • The Oh-Ohs Another spoken name for the '00s, and the sound we make when the host says pens down.
  • Turn of the Century Club The phrase used to mean 1900. For this team it means the other one.
  • Y2K Compliant The label for software certified to handle the year 2000, after fears that two-digit years would make it read as 1900.
  • Y2Quiz Y2K with the K swapped out. The Y stood for year, and 2K for two thousand.

The family computer 15

  • Blue Screen of Doubt The blue screen of death was the error page of a crashed PC. Ours appears when the host asks if that is our final answer.
  • Broadband Together Band together, upgraded. Broadband meant the phone line stayed free while you were online.
  • Captcha If You Can Catch me if you can, the playground taunt, crossed with the squiggly-letter test that checks you are human. The word CAPTCHA dates from 2003.
  • The Computer Room Houses of the decade had a computer room, because the computer did not move.
  • Defrag in Progress Defragmenting tidied files scattered across a hard drive, and took hours. Give us a minute to do the same.
  • The Homework Was on the Flash Drive The excuse that replaced the dog. The flash drive was in the other bag.
  • The Hourglass Cursor The small hourglass that meant wait. It is our team crest.
  • LAN Party Animals Party animals, at a LAN party: friends carrying their computers to one house to play over a local network.
  • Not Responding The words in the title line of a frozen program. Also us, when the host asks for a volunteer.
  • Pop-Up Blockers By 2004 every major browser could block the windows that opened by themselves. We block wrong answers less reliably.
  • Restore Point A restore point let a computer roll back to a day when it still worked. We would like one set before round three.
  • Safely Remove Hardware The step for ejecting a flash drive that nearly everyone skipped.
  • Too Many Toolbars Every free download added a toolbar to the browser, until the web page was a thin strip at the bottom.
  • Wireless and Clueless Wi-Fi let the internet leave the desk at last. The second word is about us.
  • Your Turn on the Computer Is Up One computer per household, in the living room, with a line of siblings behind the chair.

Low-rise jeans and frosted tips 23

  • A Dress Over Jeans A dress with jeans underneath, worn on purpose: the layering of the decade taken as far as it would go.
  • A Wristband for Every Cause Rubber charity bracelets were stacked up the arm, one color per cause.
  • Bootcut Camp Boot camp, in bootcut jeans, which flare slightly from the knee to sit over a shoe.
  • The Butterfly Clip Effect The butterfly effect says a small change can have large results. Butterfly clips were tiny hair grips worn a dozen at a time.
  • Cargo Pockets Full of Facts Cargo pants had a pocket on each thigh, big enough for a flip phone, a wallet and a CD player.
  • Chunky Highlights Bold, unblended stripes of lighter hair, which arrived in 2002. Also the three good moments of our night.
  • Crimp My Style Cramp my style, run through a crimping iron, which pressed hair into tight waves.
  • Foam Front, Mesh Back The anatomy of a trucker hat, a popular accessory of the early 2000s. Ours are worn slightly to one side.
  • Frosted Tips and Tricks Tips and tricks, bleached. Frosted tips were short gelled spikes with only the ends dyed pale blond.
  • Jeans and a Going-Out Top The standard outfit for a night out, agreed by phone beforehand.
  • Lip Glossing Over the Details To gloss over something is to skip the awkward part. In the early 2000s lip gloss beat lipstick for popularity.
  • Low-Rise Expectations Low expectations, cut like the jeans of the decade, which sat on the hips.
  • Phone, Keys, Lip Gloss The full contents of a shoulder bag small enough to sit under the arm.
  • Popped Collar Scholars A polo shirt worn with the collar turned up, a preppy look of the decade. The rhyme does the rest.
  • Puka Shell Game A shell game is a con played with three cups. Puka shells are the white beads of a surfer necklace.
  • Roll-On Body Glitter Glitter in a gel, rolled onto shoulders and cheekbones before a school dance.
  • Rose-Tinted Aviators To see through rose-tinted glasses is to remember the past as better than it was. Aviator sunglasses were a popular accessory of the early 2000s.
  • Side Bang Theory The big bang theory of the universe, restyled with long bangs swept across one eye.
  • Skinny Jeans, Slim Chance Skinny jeans took over in the decade's second half. A slim chance is about what we have.
  • Studded Belt Holders A champion holds a belt. Ours is studded and came from the mall.
  • Three Tank Tops at Once Layering was the rule: a longer tank top showing under the main one, in a second color.
  • The Velour Tracksuits A matching zip-up top and pants in soft velour, worn to the mall and nowhere near a track.
  • Zigzag Parting Shot A parting shot is a last remark on the way out. A zigzag parting was combed into the hairline in the early 2000s.

DVDs, reality TV and consoles 23

  • The Big Reveal The closing minutes of every makeover show. Ours comes when the host reads the answers.
  • Bonus Features Everything on a DVD that was not the film. On this team, that is the person who only knows sports.
  • Box Set Marathon A season of TV on a stack of discs, watched over one weekend: the marathon before streaming.
  • Cheat Codes Don't Work Here A cheat code was a button sequence that unlocked extra lives. The host accepts none.
  • Confessional Camera The reality TV device of talking to a camera alone about the people in the next room.
  • Dance Mat Dropouts A dance game was played by stepping on arrows on a plastic floor mat. It counted as exercise.
  • The Deleted Scenes The DVD extra where cut footage went. Most of our answers belong there too.
  • Director's Commentary A DVD audio track of the director talking over the whole film. We do the same over every question.
  • DVD Menu Loop The half minute of menu music that played all night after everyone fell asleep on the couch.
  • Five-Button Guitarists Rhythm games came with a plastic guitar that had five colored buttons and no strings.
  • Flat Screen Envy A flat panel on a neighbor's wall made the deep tube television at home look like furniture.
  • Full Screen Edition A full screen DVD cropped the sides of a widescreen film to fill a squarer TV. We miss what is at the edges too.
  • It Hit the Corner An idle DVD player bounced a logo around the screen, and a room would cheer if it landed exactly in a corner.
  • Lines Are Now Closed Talent shows had viewers vote by phone and text, then shut the lines. Read aloud after the last round, it lands.
  • Memory Card Full Game saves lived on a small card that was always full. So is the part of our brains that holds capital cities.
  • Not Here to Make Friends What every reality contestant of the decade announced in week one. We are, in fact, here to make friends.
  • Player Two Has the Bad Controller Every console had one worn-out controller, and it went to the guest.
  • Split Screen Peekers In split-screen multiplayer you could see your rival's share of the TV. Eyes on your own sheet.
  • Universal Remote Control Freaks Control freaks, with a universal remote: one handset meant to replace the four on the coffee table.
  • Unskippable Warning DVDs opened with a copying warning that the skip button could not touch. Same goes for copying the next table's sheet.
  • Voted Off First Reality shows of the decade sent one contestant home each week. Somebody has to go first.
  • Wear the Wrist Strap Motion controllers came with a wrist strap, so a wild swing did not send one into the TV.
  • Wrong Region Code A region-locked DVD player only plays discs coded for its part of the world. Our answer was right, just not here.

School, cameras and the mall 16

  • A Third of a Megapixel A camera phone of 2003 typically shot at VGA resolution, 640 by 480, about a third of a megapixel. Our recall of the decade is that sharp.
  • Arm's Length Self-Portrait Before phones had a front camera, a photo of yourself meant turning the camera around, holding it out and hoping.
  • Beaded Curtain Call A curtain call is the bow at the end of a show. A beaded curtain hung in the bedroom doorway.
  • Delete the Blurry Ones The gift of the digital camera: check the little screen, delete, and take it again.
  • Games on the Graphing Calculator A graphing calculator could be loaded with small games, which is what it was mostly used for.
  • Gel Pen Pals Pen pals, armed with gel pens in every glitter and pastel shade.
  • Holding Court at the Food Court To hold court is to sit at the center of a circle of listeners. On a teenage weekend, the circle met at the mall food court.
  • Inflatable Armchair Experts An armchair expert has opinions and no experience. The armchair here is a blow-up one from a teenager's bedroom.
  • Meet at the Fountain How friends found each other at the mall when half of them had no phone yet.
  • Notes Folded Into Triangles Before everyone could text, a note crossed the classroom folded into a tight paper triangle.
  • Photo Booth Sticker Club Mall photo booths printed sheets of tiny stickers of you and your friends, for binders and phone backs.
  • Point and Guess Point and shoot was the simple kind of camera. This is the simple kind of quiz technique.
  • Rolling Backpack Gang A school bag on wheels with a pull-out handle, towed down the hallway like luggage.
  • Scooter Ankle Survivors The folding kick scooter swung round and caught its rider on the ankle bone. Everyone who owned one remembers.
  • We Got Mostly Cs Teen magazine quizzes ended with a key: mostly As, mostly Bs, mostly Cs. This is our result.
  • Wheels in the Heels Sneakers with a wheel set into each heel let kids roll through the supermarket.

How it works

These 2000s trivia team names are built on the decade's objects: flip phones, burnt CDs, away messages and low-rise jeans. Press Pick 5 new team names to deal five of 154; to keep the ones your table remembers, take the others away with × and press again. A line under each name helps the teammate who never owned a flip phone.

Read the full guide

Why the vowels went missing

The All team names menu under the button holds eight groups. Chat-speak and away messages is the largest, with 24 names. The one few people guess is Aughts, noughties and Y2K, 11 plays on what to call the decade. Flip phones and texting explains how the rest are spelled. One text message held up to 160 characters, and on a number keypad the letter S took four presses of the 7 key. Hence 160 Characters or Fewer, Press Seven Four Times and a decade of missing vowels.

Chat-speak belongs on the answer sheet

Txt Us the Answrs leaves the host's mouth as plain text us the answers, and nobody can pronounce xX Quiz Kids Xx. If your host reads names out with the scores, pick one that survives the trip: Emoticontestants, BRB, Winning and Ringtone Deaf all land aloud. N00bs With Two Zeros explains its own spelling, so it works both ways.

  • At a table of mixed ages, choose The family computer in the menu. Not Responding lands with anyone who has waited on a frozen PC.
  • Match the name to the round you dread: Ringtone Deaf owns up to the music round before it starts.
  • Near the bottom last week? TTYL, Last Place and Voted Off First get the joke in before the host can.

Questions and answers

What do n00b and pwned mean?

Both are leetspeak, the online habit of swapping letters for look-alike digits. A n00b is a newbie with zeros for the Os. Pwned began as a slip of the finger for owned, because P sits beside O on a keyboard, and it means soundly beaten: see Pwned by the History Round.

What is the decade of the 2000s actually called?

It never got one agreed name the way the eighties and nineties did. American English mostly says the aughts and British English the noughties, and both come from old words for zero. Aughts, noughties and Y2K plays on those, and on the oh-ohs and the double zeros.

Can I use these names for a 2000s theme party as well as a quiz night?

Yes. Press Add another until the list holds 20 and press Print, so each table can pick from a sheet. At a quiz the name goes on every paper you hand in, so On Shuffle is kinder to your wrist than The Homework Was on the Flash Drive.

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