John Doe

This is the famous JohnDoe page. The purpose of this page is to list popular JohnDoe synonyms in different languages.

First out is of course:

• JohnDoe -- this page

Equivalents in other languages would be

• Sven Svensson -- popular Swedish alternative (The name Sven Svensson should be easy to explain: 1. "Sven": It's the mostly used name in Sweden. "Sweden" means "Sverige" in Swedish - both have the same basis so you can see the relationship between the name "Sven" and the country. 2. "-son": This ending means the same like "son" in English. Therefore you say "Sven Svensson" in order to express "Sven, the son of Sven" or "Sven, Sven's son" => "Sven Svensson".)
• Jean Dupont -- guess where,
• Zhang Sang -- JohnDoe in Chinese (Zhang is a common Chinese last name and Sang means three.)
• Mehmet Mehmetcik -- JohnDoe in Turkey
• Otto Normalverbraucher -- ("Otto Average Consumer") in German
• Jonas Jonaitis -- Lithuanian
• Jan met de pet -- The Netherlands and Dutch speaking Belgium
• Pinco Pallino -- Italian
• Jock Mcgillicuddy -- Scottish vernacular
• Gipsz Jakab -- "Jacob Gypsum" in Hungary

Although this list is a bit off track. Sven Svensson is more of an equivalent of Mr. Smith. -- the everyday person. JohnDoe is very specifically an unidentified person, where as Mr. Smith is "just anyone".

Does anyone know why the name John Doe is used for an unknown person?

From http://www.word-detective.com

Fortunately, I happen to have on my shelf a fine book called "What's In A Name?" by the learned and prolific Paul Dickson (Merriam-Webster, 1996) which deals with just this sort of question. It turns out that the "John Doe" custom dates back to the reign of England's King Edward III, during the legal debate over something called the Acts of Ejectment. This debate involved a hypothetical landowner, referred to as "John Doe," who leased land to another man, the equally fictitious "Richard Roe," who then took the land as his own and "ejected," or evicted, poor "John Doe."

These names -- John Doe and Richard Roe -- had no particular significance, aside from "Doe" (a female deer) and "Roe" (a small species of deer found in Europe) being commonly known nouns at the time. But the debate became a hallmark of legal theory, and the name "John Doe" in particular gained wide currency in both the legal world and general usage as a generic stand-in for any unnamed person. According to Mr. Dickson, "John Doe" and "Richard Roe" are, to this day, mandated in legal procedure as the first and second names given to unknown defendants in a case (followed, if necessary, by "John Stiles" and "Richard Miles"). The name "Jane Doe," a logical female equivalent, is used in many state jurisdictions, but if the case is federal, the unnamed defendant is dubbed "Mary Major."

Thank you, you rock! I googled John Doe and got everything but.

Thanks for the interesting information, having seen Se7en I always wondered about the name John Doe and its popularity. Thank You. And guess what, I found my own name, too! ;-) Bye. Sven Svensson

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Zhang Sang is JohnDoe's equivalence in Chinese.

Is there any significance that Sang means three?

You sure about Sang being three? San is three (http://www.1jn.com/1/engman.html) and without hearing the tone I can't tell what Sang is.

Doe is a female deer. What's the significance there?

Doe may be an altered form of an abbreviation of ditto, which was used to indicate repetitions of a common name.