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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

English America* has "John Doe". What are informal names for unknown or unspecified persons in other countries/regions?

* You pedants

@ 4/15/2008 07:52:00 PM

5 comments:

Edward said...

"John Doe" is an American phrase, not an English one.

April 16, 2008 3:16 AM
Anonymous said...

I was going to say the same thing. English people wouldn't have a clue what John Doe meant, and would assume it was a normal name. John Doe is a foreign thing not an English thing.

April 16, 2008 5:45 AM
Ben Yates said...

I meant the English language. :P (And use of the phrase did originate in England even if it's fallen out of favor there.)

April 16, 2008 6:05 AM
Anonymous said...

In Sweden, "Svensson" or "Medelsvensson" (Mr. Average Svensson) are common for the average Swede. Swedish has no common name for average people independent of place. The average Norwegian is called [[Ola Nordmann]], which already has an English Wikipedia entry. The Swedish Wikipedia entry [[sv:Medelsvensson]] has an interwiki to [[en:Joe Bloggs]].

April 16, 2008 12:10 PM
Anonymous said...

Australia: Joe Blow (sp?) is what i grew up with but maybe that was just my family as I haven't heard it for years. Fred Bloggs seems more common, but haven't heard that for a few years either. Probably because I spend all my time with geeks and they just say "Foo". Or, for an unspecified Armenian male, "Armen Fooian".

April 21, 2008 11:27 AM

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