List of placeholder names

This is a list of placeholder names (words that can refer to things, persons, places, numbers and other concepts whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, unknown or being deliberately withheld in the context in which they are being discussed) in various languages.

Arabic

Arabic uses Fulan, Fulana[h] (فلان / فلانة) and when a last name is needed it becomes Fulan AlFulani, Fulana[h] AlFulaniyya[h] (فلان الفلاني / فلانة الفلانية). When a second person is needed, ʿillan, ʿillana[h] (علان / علانة) is used. The use of Fulan has been borrowed into Spanish, Portuguese, Persian, Turkish and Malay, as shown below.

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic

Inna ܐܸܢܵܐ or hinna ܗܸܢܵܐ are used for "thingy", "thingamabob", etc. "Ayka dre-li inna?" roughly translates to "Where did I put the thingamabob?"

A verb of the root '-N-L (ܐܢܠ) likely derived from the noun is used to express actions similarly; for verbs that don't immediately come to mind. Though not directly translatable into English, e.g. "Si m’annil-leh" roughly translates to "go do that thing".

Similarly to other Semitic languages, plān ܦܠܵܢ (masculine) and plānīthā ܦܠܵܢܝܼܬ݂ܵܐ (feminine) are used for "so-and-so".

Bengali

Bengali uses the universal placeholder ইয়ে iẏē. It is generally placed for a noun which cannot be recalled by the speaker at the time of speech. ইয়ে iẏē can be used for nouns, adjectives, and verbs (in conjunction with light verbs). অমুক amuk can also be a placeholder for people or objects. ফলনা/ফলানা falanā/falānā and its female equivalent ফলনি falani is a placeholder specific to people. The phrase এ যে ē yē roughly translates to 'you know' although the literal meaning is 'this that'. To refer to an extended family or generation the phrase চৌদ্দ গোষ্ঠী caudda gōṣṭhī is used. It can also mean 'everyone one knows', when used in a context of telling your "caudda gōṣṭhī" something and not keeping a secret.

Danish

Persons

In common parlance and as a placeholder a variety can be used. Navn Navnesen (Name Nameson) is an example.

In civil law A, B, C etc. are used. In criminal law T is used for the accused (tiltalte), V is a non-law enforcement witness (vidne), B is a police officer (betjent) and F or FOU is the victim (forurettede). When more than one a number is added, e.g. V1, V2 and B1, B2.

Places

Faraway countries are often called Langtbortistan, lit. Farawayistan. Langtbortistan was first used in 1959 in the weekly periodical Anders And & Co as Sonja Rindom's translation of Remotistan. Since 2001, it has been included in Retskrivningsordbogen.

Backwards places in the countryside are called Lars Tyndskids marker, lit. The fields of Lars Diarrhea. Similarly Hvor kragerne vender, lit. Where the crows turn around may also be used for denoting both a far away and backward place at the same time.

The expression langt pokker i vold is a placeholder for a place far far away e.g. he kicked the ball langt pokker i vold.

Egyptian

In Ancient Egypt, the names Hudjefa and Sedjes, literally meaning "erased" and "missing", were used by later Egyptian scribes in kings lists to refer to much older previous pharaohs whose names had by that time been lost.

English

Persons

"Blackacre" and "John Doe" or "Jane Doe" are often used as placeholder names in law.

Other more common and colloquial versions of names exist, including "Joe Shmoe", "Joe Blow", and "Joe Bloggs". "Tom, Dick and Harry" may be used to refer to a group of nobodies or unknown men. "John Smith" or "Jane Smith" is sometimes used as a placeholder on official documents.

Things

English words to colloquially describe an object whose name the speaker does not know, does not recall, or does not care about include thingy, thingamajig, whatsit, and doohickey.

Galician

A research in Galician language (and Spanish and Portuguese) classified the toponymic placeholders for faraway locations in four groups:

• related to blasphemies and bad words (no carallo, na cona);
• related to religious topics (onde Cristo deu as tres voces, onde San Pedro perdeu as chaves, onde a Virxe perdeu as zapatillas);
• local (Galician) real toponyms (majorly en Cuspedriños, but also en Coirós or en Petelos);
• international toponyms (na China, na Co(n)chinchina, en Tombuctú, en Fernando Poo, en Bosnia);

There is apart a humoristic, infrequent element, as in en Castrocú. Some can add more than one element (na cona da Virxe). It is also noted the prevalence of the adjective quinto ("fifth").

German

Things

German also sports a variety of placeholders; some, as in English, contain the element Dings, Dingens (also Dingenskirchen for towns), Dingsda, Dingsbums, cognate with English thing. Also, Kram, Krimskrams, Krempel suggests a random heap of small items, e.g., an unsorted drawerful of memorabilia or souvenirs. Apparillo (from Apparat) may be used for any kind of machinery or technical equipment. In a slightly higher register, Gerät represents a miscellaneous artifact or utensil, or, in casual German, may also refer to an item of remarkable size. The use of the word Teil (part) is a relatively recent placeholder in German that has gained great popularity since the late 1980s. Initially a very generic term, it has acquired a specific meaning in certain contexts. Zeug or Zeugs (compare Dings, can be loosely translated as 'stuff') usually refers to either a heap of random items that is a nuisance to the speaker, or an uncountable substance or material, often a drug. Finally, Sache, as a placeholder, loosely corresponding to Latin res, describes an event or a condition. A generic term used especially when the speaker cannot think of the exact name or number, also used in enumerations analogously to et cetera, is the colloquial schlag-mich-tot or schieß-mich-tot (literally "strike/shoot me dead", to indicate that the speaker's memory fails him/her).

A generic (and/or inferior) technical device (as opposed to i.e. a brand item) is often called a 08/15 (after the WWI-era MG 08 machine gun, whose extensive mass production gave it its "generic" character) pronounced in individual numbers null-acht-fünfzehn.

Persons

Identity card of Erika Mustermann (Version 2010)

The German equivalent to the English John Doe for males and Jane Doe for females would be Max Mustermann (Max Exampleperson) and Erika Mustermann, respectively. For the former, Otto Normalverbraucher (after the protagonist of the 1948 movie Berliner Ballade, named in turn after the standard consumer for ration cards) is also widely known. Fritz or Fritzchen is often used as a placeholder in jokes for a mischievous little boy (little Johnny), -fritze for a person related to something, as in Fahrradfritze (literally Bicycle Fred, the (unspecified) person who repairs, or is in some way connected to, bicycles). In a similar vein there is Onkel Fritz (lit. Uncle Fred).

There is also Krethi und Plethi, Hinz und Kunz, or Hans und Franz for everybody similar to the English Tom, Dick and Harry if not in a slightly more derogatory way. For many years, Erika Mustermann has been used on the sample picture of German ID cards ("Personalausweis").

Hawaiian Pidgin

• Da kine

Hebrew

In Hebrew, the word זה (zeh, meaning 'this') is a placeholder for any noun. The term צ׳ופצ׳יק (chúpchik, meaning a protuberance, particularly the diacritical mark geresh), a borrowing of Russian чубчик (chúbchik, a diminutive of чуб chub "forelock") is also used by some speakers.

The most popular personal name placeholders are מה-שמו (mah-shmo, 'whatsisname'), משה (Moshe = Moses) and יוֹסִי (Yossi, common diminutive form of Yosef) for first name, and כהן (Cohen, the most common surname in Israel) for last name. However, in ID and credit card samples, the usual name is ישראל ישראלי (Yisrael Yisraeli) for a man and ישראלה ישראלי (Yisraela Yisraeli) for a woman (these are actual first and last names) – similar to John and Jane Doe.

The traditional terms are פלוני (ploni) and its counterpart אלמוני (almoni) (originally mentioned in Ruth 4:1). The combined term פלוני אלמוני (ploni almoni) is also in modern official usage; for example, addressing guidelines by Israel postal authorities use ploni almoni as the addressee.

A placeholder for a time in the far past is תרפפ״ו (tarapapu), which resembles a year number in the Hebrew calendar. Years of the Hebrew calendar are commonly written in Hebrew numerals. For example, the year Anno Mundi 5726 would be written as ה׳תשכ״ו, which can be further abbreviated to תשכ״ו by omitting the first letter that stands for thousands. What makes תרפפ״ו unusual is the use of the same letter פ׳ twice. The word תרפפ״ו has the gematria of 766 = 400 (ת) + 200 (ר) + 80 (פ) + 80 (פ) + 6 (ו), but as a numeral, it would usually be written with the shorter sequence 400 (ת) + 300 (ש) + 60 (ס) + 6 (ו).

Hungarian

Persons

John Smith (US: John Doe) is Kovács János or Gipsz Jakab (lit. John Smith or Jake Gypsum, or Jakob Gipsch, with surname followed by given name, as normal in Hungarian). However these names are not used in official reports (for example instead of US John/Jane Doe ismeretlen férfi/nő (unknown male/female) would appear in a police report). Samples for forms, credit cards etc. usually contain the name Minta János (John Sample) or Minta Kata (Kate Sample). Gizike and Mancika, which are actual, though now relatively uncommon, female nicknames, are often used to refer to stereotypically obnoxious and ineffective female bureaucrats. Jokes sometimes refer to an older person named Béla (a quite common male given name), especially if it is implied that he is perverted or has an unusual sexual orientation despite his age.

Places

As for place names, there is Mucsaröcsöge or Csajágaröcsöge, little villages or boonies far out in the countryside, and Kukutyin or Piripócs, villages or small towns somewhere in the countryside. A general place reference is the phrase (az) Isten háta mögött, meaning "behind the back of God", i.e. 'middle of nowhere'.

Icelandic

Persons

In Icelandic, the most common placeholder names are Jón Jónsson for men, and Jóna Jónsdóttir for women. The common or average Icelander is referred to as meðaljón (lit. average John).

In official texts, the abbreviation N.N. (for Latin nomen nescio, "name unknown") may be used. Out of official texts, N.N. is very occasionally (and non-seriously) expanded to Nebúkadnesar Nebúkadnesarson, a name used in the short story "Lilja: Sagan af Nebúkadnesar Nebúkadnesarsyni í lífi og dauða" by Halldór Laxness. It is part of the short-story collection Fótatak manna.

Places

The Icelandic version of the Nordic words for faraway places is Fjarskanistan or Langtíburtistan. This and the other Nordic counterparts come from Donald Duck comic magazines, in which Donald tends to end up in that country if he doesn't play his cards right.

Time

An unspecified or forgotten date from long time ago is often referred to as sautján hundruð og súrkál (seventeen hundred and sauerkraut).

Indonesian

There is no single name that is widely accepted, but the name of Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, can be found in many articles; it has the advantages of being Javanese (about 45% of the Indonesian population), a single word (see Indonesian name), and well-known.

Other male names: Joni (Indonesian for Johnny), and Budi (widely used in elementary textbooks). Ini ibu Budi (this is Budi's mother) is a common phrase in primary school's standardized reading textbook from 1980s until it was removed in 2014. Popular female placeholder names are Ani, Sinta, Sri, Dewi.

Fulan (male) and Fulanah (female) are also often found, especially in religious articles (both are derived from Arabic).

Zaman kuda gigit besi (the era when horses bite iron) and zaman baheula indicates a very long time ago.

Irish

Things

Common Irish placeholders for objects include an rud úd "that thing over there", an rud sin eile "that other thing", and cá hainm seo atá air "whatever its name is".

Persons

In Irish, the common male name "Tadhg" is part of the very old phrase Tadhg an mhargaidh (Tadhg of the market-place) which combines features of the English phrases "average Joe" and "man on the street".

This same placeholder name, transferred to English-language usage and now usually rendered as Taig, became and remains a vitriolic derogatory term for an Irish Catholic and has been used by Unionists in Northern Ireland in such bloodthirsty slogans as "If guns are made for shooting, then skulls are made to crack. You've never seen a better Taig than with a bullet in his back" and "Don't be vague, kill a Taig".

A generic male person can also be called Seán Ó Rudaí ("Sean O'Something", from rud "thing") or Mac Uí Rudaí ("O'Something's son"). Additional persons can be introduced by using other first names and inflecting the family name according to normal Irish conventions for personal names, such as Síle Uí Rudaí ("Sheila O'Something") for a married or elder woman and Aisling Ní Rudaí for a young or unmarried woman.

Paddy, another derogatory placeholder name for an Irish person, lacks the sharpness of Taig and is often used in a jocular context or incorporated into mournful pro-Irish sentiment (e.g. the songs "Poor Paddy on the Railway" and "Paddy's Lament"). By contrast, the term Taig remains a slur in almost every context. Biddy (from the name Bridget) is a female equivalent placeholder name for Irish females.

Also note that the Hiberno-English placeholder names Yer man, Yer one and Himself/Herself are long-established idioms derived from the syntax of the Irish language. Yer man and yer one are a half-translation of a parallel Irish-language phrase, mo dhuine, literally "my person". This has appeared in songs, an example of which is The Irish Rover in the words "Yer man, Mick McCann, from the banks of the Bann".

Japanese

名無しの権兵衛 Nanashi no Gonbei (lit. Nameless Gonbei) is a common placeholder name for a person whose name is unknown, comparable to John Doe in English. Gonbei is an old masculine given name that, due to being common in the countryside, came to have connotations of "hillbilly".

On documents or forms requiring a first and last name, 山田 太郎 Yamada Tarō and 山田 花子 Yamada Hanako are very commonly used example names for men and women respectively, comparable to John and Jane Smith in English. Both are generic but possible names in Japanese. Yamada, whose characters mean 'mountain' and 'rice field' respectively, is not the most common last name in Japan, ranking 12th nationwide in 2024; however, it is a mundane name that appears throughout the country. Tarō used to be a common name to give to firstborn sons; though it has declined in popularity, it is still sometimes given to boys. Hanako (literally "flower child") was once a common name for girls but is considered old-fashioned nowadays.

Sometimes, Yamada will be replaced with the name of a company, place, or a related word; for example, 東芝 太郎 Tōshiba Tarō for Toshiba, 駒場 太郎 Komaba Tarō for Tokyo University (one of its three main campuses is located in Komaba), or 納税 太郎 Nōzei Tarō on tax return forms (nōzei means "to pay taxes"; it is not a last name). Although Tarō and Hanako are by far the most popular due to their recognizability as example names, different first names, such as 一郎 Ichirō or 夏子 Natsuko for men and women respectively, may be used. In recent years, there have also been more unique placeholder names, such as 奈良 鹿男 Nara Shikao for the city of Nara (shika means "deer", which is a symbol of the city) and 有鳶 時音 Arutobi Jion for the company アルトビジョン Altovision.

When avoiding specifying a person, place or thing, 某 bō can be used as a modifier to a noun to mean 'unnamed' or 'certain/particular' (e.g. 某政治家 bō seijika, "a certain politician").

When referring to multiple people or when keeping people anonymous, it is also common to use A, B, C, etc., with or without honorifics. 子 ko may be added to the end for girls and women (e.g. A子 ēko).

The symbols 〇〇/○○, read まるまる marumaru (doubling of 丸 maru meaning 'circle') is a common placeholder when various values are possible in its place or to censor information, similar to underscores, asterisks, <blank> or [redacted] in English. It can be used in place of any noun or adjective. The symbols ××, read チョメチョメ chomechome, ペケペケ pekepeke or バツバツ batsubatsu are also used, although chomechome is sometimes avoided due to having sexual connotations. The symbols are usually doubled but can be repeated more times. Placeholder symbols are sometimes read ほにゃらら honyarara.

Other filler words include 何とか nantoka, 何たら nantara and 何何 naninani. These can be used for a person whose name has been temporarily forgotten (e.g. なんとかちゃん nantoka-chan, roughly "Miss What's-her-name" in the third person). 何とか nantoka and 何とやら nantoyara are sometimes used when purposefully omitting a word from a saying (e.g. 何とかも木から落ちる nantoka mo ki kara ochiru instead of 猿も木から落ちる saru mo ki kara ochiru, meaning "even monkeys fall from trees"; the word 猿 saru meaning "monkey" has been replaced with 何とか nantoka meaning "something" or "you-know-what", although "monkey" is still implied).

誰々 daredare or 誰某 daresore for people, 何処何処 dokodoko or 何処其処 dokosoko for places and 何れ何れ doredore or 何其 doresore for things that are unnamed or forgotten are also used.

In computing, starting in the late 1980s, hoge (ほげ, no literal meaning) or hogehoge (doubled) were used much like foo and bar, although their use seems to have decreased in recent years.

Latin

In Latin the word res (thing) is used. Some Latin legal writers used the name Numerius Negidius as a John Doe placeholder name; this name was chosen in part because it shares its initials with the Latin phrases (often abbreviated in manuscripts to NN) nomen nescio, "I don't know the name"; nomen nominandum, "name to be named" (used when the name of an appointee was as yet unknown); and non-nominatus/nominata, "not named".

Formal writing in (especially older) Dutch uses almost as much Latin as the lawyer's English, and, for instance, "N.N." was and is commonly used as a "John Doe" placeholder in class schedules, grant proposals, etc.

Emperor Justinian's codification of Roman law follows the custom of using "Titius" and "Seius" as names for Roman citizens, and "Stichus" and "Pamphilus" as names for slaves.

Lojban

The constructed language Lojban uses the series brodV (namely broda, brode, brodi, brodo, brodu), ko'V (namely ko'a, ko'e, ko'i, ko'o, ko'u) and fo'V (namely fo'a, fo'e, fo'i, fo'o, fo'u) as pro-forms with explicitly assigned antecedents. However, Lojban speakers had begun to use them as placeholder words, especially in technical discussions on the language. To distinguish both uses, some special markers were created to unambiguously differentiate between anaphoric and metasyntactic usage.

Polish

Things

The noun wihajster (from German Wie heißt er? lit. 'What is he called?') can refer to a (usually) handheld tool or device.

Persons

A Polish driving license issued to "Jan Kowalski".

A universal placeholder name for a man is Jan Kowalski (kowal meaning "(black)smith"); for a woman, Anna Kowalska. A second unspecified person would be called Nowak ("Newman"), with the choice of first name being left to the author's imagination, often also Jan for a man; this surname is unisex. Jan is one of the most popular male first names in Polish, and Kowalski and Nowak are the most popular Polish surnames.

Verbs

The verb tentegować (ten + tego + -wać (action postfix) = "that" + "of this" + " do") can refer to any action. Various prefixes (roz-, prze-, przy-) can be used to narrow down its meaning.

Russian

Universal

A large number of placeholder words for people, things, and actions are derived from Russian profanity (mat), as may be found in multiple dictionaries of Russian slang.

An informal placeholder (for persons, places, etc.) is "такой-то" ("takoy-to" (masculine form; feminine: takaya-to; neuter: takoye-to), meaning "this or that", "such and such", etc.).

Persons

A historical placeholder for a personal name used in legal documents and prayers is "имярек" ("imyarek"), derived from the archaic expression "imya rek" meaning "having said the name". The word entered into a common parlance as well.

To refer to an unknown person, the words "nekto", "kto-to", etc., equivalent to "someone", are used, as in "Someone stole my wallet".

Placeholders for personal names include variations on names Иван (Ivan), Пётр (Pyotr/Peter), and Сидор (Sidor), such as Иван Петрович Сидоров (Ivan Petrovich Sidorov) for a full name, or Иванов (Ivanov) for a last name; deliberately fake name-patronymic-surname combinations use one of them for all three, with the most widely used being Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov.

The name "Vasya Pupkin" (Russian: Вася Пупкин) may be used as a placeholder name for an average random or unknown person in the colloquial speech.

Places

• Various city names are often employed as placeholders. For instance, to denote a remote, obscure place:
  • Тьмутаракань (Tmutarakan, an ancient Crimean city which sounds in modern Russian something like "dark cockroach city", тьма таракан)
  • Зажопинск (Zazhopinsk, "city beyond the ass")
  • Мухосранск (Mukhosransk, "fly shit city").
• The capital of the Russian backwoods is Урюпинск (Uryupinsk, a town in central Russia), although Бобруйск (Babruysk, a Belarusian city) has gained its popularity in the Russian Internet community.
• In some occasions in literature (a novel by famous Russian and Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol) unknown or deliberately unidentified places are referred to as ...ское место (featuring a widespread adjective ending ской).
• Latin N is sometimes used as a placeholder for the actual name of the site, e.g. город N ("city N").

Spanish

Time

• Indefinite time in the past:
  • tiempos de Maricastaña, "times of Maricastaña", probably in reference to María Castaña, a little known 14th century woman.
  • cuando reinó Carolo, "when Charles reigned". The origin is unclear, the most viable hypothesis is that it refers to Charles III of Spain: on a frontispiece of a gate in Alcalá de Henares in the Community of Madrid there used to be an inscription "REGE CAROLO III ANNO MDCCLXXVIII". While the king ruled in 18th century, the Latin text and Roman numerals gave an impression of antiquity.

Spanish (Europe)

Persons

Placeholder names in the Spanish language might have a pejorative or derogatory feeling to them, depending on the context.

• Perico (masculine) Perico de los palotes (a fool with (drum)sticks) or Juan de los palotes. The fool in question was a jester with a drum who accompanied a town crier, with the latter collecting salary and tips for both of them, and taking lion's share Hence the indignation implied in the phrases, such as "Who do you think I am, a fool with sticks?". "El Perico de los Palotes" was one of numerous pseudonyms of Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera.
• (feminine) Rita la Cantaora ("Rita the Singer") in reference to a woman who would do something one doesn't want to do oneself: "Let Rita la Cantaora". Rita de Cantaora was actually Rita Giménez García, see her article about the origin of the expression.
• Fulano/a (from Arabic fulán) is the default placeholder name for a human (the female version Fulana should be used carefully as it is also slang for "prostitute", but the diminutive form Fulanita is safe). Fulano de Tal is the equivalent of John Doe. Fulano is cognate with the Biblical Hebrew term ploni (see above).
• Mengano (from the Arabic man kán).
• Zutano (from the Castilian word citano from the Latin scitanus "known").
• Perengano (from the combination of the very common last name of Perez and Mengano).

When several placeholders are needed together, they are used in the above order, e.g. "Fulano, Mengano y Zutano". All placeholder words are also used frequently in diminutive form, Fulanito/a, Menganito/a, Perenganito/a or Zutanito/a.

The words "tío" and "tía" (uncle and aunt respectively) can be used to refer to any unspecified male or female. It is also used between friends to call each other (equivalent to "dude").

Places

• El quinto pino (lit. "the fifth pine"), el quinto carajo, la quinta porra, la quinta puñeta or el quinto infierno are colloquially used to refer to an unspecified remote place. E.g.: Nos perdimos y acabamos en el quinto pino ("We got lost and ended up in the fifth pine")
• Donde Cristo perdió el gorro/las sandalias ("where Christ lost his cap/his sandals") and donde San Pedro perdió el mechero ("where Saint Peter lost his lighter") E.g.: Trotski fue exiliado a Alma Ata, que está, más o menos, donde Cristo perdió el gorro ("Trotski was exiled to Alma Ata, which is, more or less, where Christ lost his cap").
• En las Chimbambas (or Quimbambas) is, according to the Real Academia, a colloquial "distant or imprecise place". Also used with the intensifier lejanas ("faraway"), thus En las lejanas Chimbambas ("in faraway Chimbamba-land" or "in faraway Chimbambistan").
• En el culo del mundo ("in the ass end of the world") doesn't have the same meaning as in English. It is only mildly derogatory, and its primary meaning is the same as "back of nowhere".
• A tomar por culo is a phrase that originally meant ("[go] take it up the ass"), but has been lexicalised into meaning "go to hell", "send something or someone to hell" or "forget about it", as documented in the dictionary of the Real Academia.

Welsh

Welsh uses betingalw (or the respectful bechingalw), literally "what you call", meaning whatchamacallit. Pwyna is used for persons whose name cannot immediately be recalled.

See also

• List of terms referring to an average person