I'm a member of the Homeland Generation (2005). Ask me anything.

[Warren Dew]

I believe "missionary generation" may have been in use before Strauss & Howe: they were the ones who went to new lands to do good, and as is often said, "did very well indeed". Obviously there were many who weren't missionaries, but it's a reasonable identifier. The Gilded Age was already a well defined period in American History, so it was natural to name a generation after it, especially a merged Civic and Reactive generation for which the timing fits well. I personally think there were two separate generations there, which makes it less an appropriate name, though "Gilded" could still be used for the Reactive generation that came of age during the post civil war high. In that case you kind of have to use the "Civil War Generation" for the generation that fought, but didn't command, the Civil War.