John Doe

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Proper noun

John Doe

1. A fictitious name used in legal documents for an unknown or anonymous male person.
   • 1885, Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume 4:

     i.e. "to Tom, Dick or Harry:" the names like John Doe and Richard Roe are used indefinitely in Arab.

Synonyms

• Richard Roe

Antonyms

• Jane Doe (an unknown female)
• Jane Roe (an unknown female)

Hyponyms

• Juan Doe (an unknown Latino)

Derived terms

• Juanita Doe
• Juan Doe
• Jane Doe

Translations

male name used in legal documents

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 某男

• Finnish: N.N. (fi)
• French: X (fr)
• German: N. N. (de), NN (de)
• Hebrew: ישראל ישראלי (he) (Israel Israeli)
• Italian: NN m or f, ignoto (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 山田太郎 (Yamada Tarō)
• Korean: 홍길동 (ko) (Hong Gildong)
• Latin: NN m or f
• Polish: NN (pl) m or f
• Swedish: NN (sv)
• Vietnamese: Nguyễn Văn A

Noun

John Doe (plural John Does)

1. Any unknown or anonymous male person.

Translations

any unknown or anonymous male person

• Arabic: فُلان (ar) m (fulān), فُلان الْفُلانِيّ m (fulān al-fulāniyy), فُلان اِبْن فُلان m (fulān ibn fulān)

  Moroccan Arabic: فْلان m (flæn), فْلان بن فْلان m (flæn bən flæn)

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 佚名 (zh) (yìmíng)

• Esperanto: Ajnulo, Sinjoro Ajnulo
• Finnish: Matti Meikäläinen (fi)
• French: Jean Dupont, Tartempion (fr)
• Galician: Fulano m, Xan m
• German: Max Mustermann (de), Otto Normalverbraucher (de)
• Hebrew: פלוני (he) m from Plony Almony - an unknown person in the biblical book of Ruth.
• Icelandic: Jón Jónsson m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Macedonian: Петар Петровски m (Petar Petrovski)
• Norwegian: Ola Nordmann
• Polish: Jan Kowalski (pl) m, Kowalski (pl) m
• Portuguese: Fulano m
• Russian: имярек (ru) m (imjarek)
• Serbo-Croatian: (literally means "Unknown Someone") Nepoznati Netko
• Spanish: Fulano m, Mengano m, Zutano m
• Turkish: sarı çizmeli Mehmet Ağa (Literally, ‘Mr. Mehmet with yellow boots’.)
• Vietnamese: Nguyễn Văn A
• Walloon: Tibî Meyî (wa) c
• Yiddish: משה גרויס m (moyshe groys)

See also

• so-and-so, what's-his-name, you-know-who