No need to be confused. Years are really easy in English. Forget about hundreds and thousands! We just divide the four numbers into two groups of two. For example, we divide 1997 into 19 and 97. So '1997' is nineteen + ninety seven. Nineteen ninety-seven. In the same way, we divide 1222 into '12' and '22'. So we just say 'Twelve twenty-two'.

Twelve twenty two.