YNs (Slang)

About

YNs or YN, commonly written yns or Them YNs, is an AAVE slang term and acronym that's an abbreviation for "young niggas" or "young nigga." YNs was commonly used on TikTok in 2024 as it was used in memes and video skits from Black creators to joke about younger generations of Black men like Zoomers and Gen Alpha. Many of the men venting about YNs joked about how the younger generations were different, meaner and crazier, similar to the term "crashout." A YN often contrasts an "unc" in these memes and viral videos. The meaning of YNs trended on Urban Dictionary and other social media sites like Twitter / X in mid-2024 amid its TikTok virality. Its usage also sparked discourse about the appropriation of YNs by white and other non-Black internet users.

Origin

The first known viral use of "YNs" on social media was a tweet^[1] shared by NBA player Ja Morant on January 25th, 2023, reading, "bih these yns turnt & I mean it 😮‍💨," gaining over 7,400 likes in a year (shown below).

Spread

Going into 2023, usage of YNs became more memetic and viral. For instance, on October 5th, 2023, X^[2] user @RondoNotNine quoted a post about the Creepy Clown Sightings returning, captioning it, "this ain gon last long these yns out here got switches," earning over 62,000 likes in 11 months (shown below).

In 2024, the usage of YNs became prevalent on TikTok. For instance, an early viral example was a video shared by TikToker^[3] @vonyveee on July 5th, 2024, showing a surprised man with a caption reading, "When you walk through the 'cut' to get home and its 10 yns posted wit switches," receiving over 117,700 plays and 2,800 likes in two months (shown below).

On July 15th, 2024, TikToker^[4] @kwameloll posted a video in which he bashed people who had to look up the meaning of YNs. His video pointed out the harmful appropriation of AAVE by non-Black people, citing the Green FN term. Over two months, his video received roughly 4.9 million plays and 550,200 likes (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References