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John Doe Around the World

By Miss Cellania in Travel & Places on Mar 12, 2008 at 11:09 am


JohnDoeIf you are an American, you know that when you see the name John Doe, it means someone whose name is not known. You also know that John Q. Public is a generic name for anyone and everyone. What about other countries? In Belgium, you might read about Jean Dupont, which won’t be his real name. In Finland, Matti Meikäläinen is not a real person; it means “generic male”. NationMaster has a list of generic names informally used for unnamed persons in many countries. Link -via Dump Trumpet


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  1. Francisco
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 11:19 am

    in colombia: N.N.

  2. Pudifoot
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 11:53 am

    Hello. My name is Guy Incognito. :-P

  3. Eugenio Martínez
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    In Spanish it´s Fulano or Fulanito. (this last means little fulano)

    Sometimes called Fulanito de tal. In fact, it´s included in dictionary.

    "de" means "of"

    "Tal" is something similar to Etcetera.

    The funny thing is that fulano is the name, and fulana means "bich"

  4. heather
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    There's acutally a character in the Japanese manga 'Bleach' who's name is derived from their version of John Doe. He was named Hanataro Yamada because of his personality as the local nobody who gets picked on. His birthday is even on April 1st so people prank him all day, poor guy. (I like him though)

  5. Jurgen
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

    Jean Dupont is a walloon name, not a flemish. In flemish we would call him 'Jan Publiek'

  6. Alex
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    Isn't Ivan Ivanovich the John Doe equivalent in Russian?

  7. Fernando
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 5:08 pm

    Hello...

    In Brazil there are many names:
    Joao Ninguem (John Nobody)
    Fulano, Ciclano and Beltrano (when is necessary to point 3 different persons)

    In Italy, I'm not really sure, I think that "Giovanni Rossi" is the name for, because both first and last name are very popular there.

    Cheers

  8. Toby B
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

    I like "Joe Borg" from Malta, its got a nice ring to it.

  9. jojo
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

    In mexico...

    fulanito, menganito, sutanito...de tal

  10. Leonore
    Mar 12th, 2008 at 9:21 pm

    Here in Chile is JUAN PEREZ (or Juanito Perez) for generic male name.

    Fulano and fulana are usual too... And it's a funny fact, fulano is any man, but fulana mean... b*tch... jejeje

  11. Jacob
    Mar 13th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

    So, former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin must have cause a whole lot of confusion in France.

  12. tripleX
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 1:28 am

    In Holland the name for the working class Joe Public is: 'Jan met de pet' = 'John with the cap'. Working class men always wore caps in the olden days.
    Joe Schmoe = Jan Lul (meaning: John Penis) Also known as: 'Jan met de korte achternaam' (meaning: John with the short surname)
    Joe Public is also called 'Jan Publiek' sometimes.

  13. Ross
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 5:33 am

    In Australia, 'Joe Blow' and 'Joe Bloggs' are common vernacular, 'John Citizen' is used in advertising and such (say on a pic of credit card, etc), but I've never heard of the others listed.

  14. Orjans Morjan
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

    Got to suck having one of those names. Some are impossible to have, but at least the Does and Swedish names are real names.

  15. emptyminded
    Mar 14th, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    When 'Casino Royale' was first published, the name James Bond was thought to be sufficiently bland as John Smith. I know a James Bond and his life has been a living hell from all the puns, jokes, and ribbing he's had to take.

  16. mishasoft3d
    Apr 7th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

    In hebrew:
    ????? ??????
    ploni almoni

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