Explanations/etymology also appreciated!
For Joe Shmoe, it means a very average or below average person. It’s a derivation of the practice of using “shm-” to dismiss something (eg “Practice shmactice. We’re already perfect”).
And “John Smith” is meant to be the most average name or person imaginable, so they have the “most common” (citation needed) first and last name as well.
In Germany there is “Max Mustermann”, which basically translates to Max Template-man. It’s the default German name used for templates of official documents like passports and such.
Don’t forget Otto Normalverbraucher. Nobody cares about Otto Normalverbraucher.
In German there are also derogatory uses for the forenames “Kevin” and “Otto” for example. Often used to depict not well educated persons that have made extremely stupid decisions/choices.
As someone with a brother named Kevin, I can confirm he’s doing his part to uphold that depiction.
I think this one is pretty confined to my region (southwestern USA) but we use Otto as the moniker of a generic stupid person too, but probably for a different reason: Otto is Oblivious to the Obvious
Don’t forget his wife, Erika Mustermann, geb. (née) Gabler. She’s usually the one used for passports these days. I think there’s a whole Mustermann family living in these templates.
Isn’t it Erika Musterfrau?
Sometimes, but I mostly see her name as Mustermann.
Or for historical context: “der Deutsche Michel” - “the German Michael “
In my country (Spanish speaking) we say “Fulano de tal” Fulano is kinda like a template name nobody really is named like that. “De tal” really means something like “from somewhere”.
We dont out it on the graves, but we use it as slang for situations where we need to refer to someone generic like “imagine a fulano de tal doing xxxxxxxxxxx”.
There are other names like Zutano, Mengano, etc.
Edit: My mom sometimes uses “Miguel Perez”. Those 2 are very common first and last names.
In Brazil (Portuguese speaking) we also use Fulano de tal. I didn’t know it was used in other countries!
We also “José Ninguém” and “Maria Ninguém” to mean someone who’s a nobody. It literally means Joseph/Mary (very common names in Brazil) Nobody.
There’s also a name that expresses the same feeling of ‘Joe Schmoe’ in pt-br: ‘Zé Roela’
And to expand on Fulano’s family, we must not forget Beltrano and Ciclano.
And “Zé das Couves” (but this one is used more rarely).
Does this came from arabic influence?
To refer someone without a name or generic name we sometime say Fulan bin Fulan meaning someone the son of someone
A lot of Spanish words and culture come from Arabic influences, the iberic peninsula was under control of arabs on the VIII century.
There’s something similar in Italian, Tal dei Tali. Literally something like that one of those ones
deleted by creator
I can’t tell you how much I love that Denmark has hillbillys who drive hatchbacks and are called fuckin’ Brian as a slur.
Interesting. In the UK (at least when I was growing up, I haven’t lived there for some time) we called doing up shit cars as Barry-ing them. I know in other parts of the country they used the name Ned or Kev to refer to the people that drove those cars.
I think more generally people use " hr. og fru Jensen" for a more exact analog of “John/Jane Smith”
But Peter Jensen was the most common name in Denmark for many years, so you’re not completely wrong.
so what do you just go ‘du er brian!’ lmfao
Used that way it would be " du er en Brian"
jeg er en sej brian og du er en brain
We have the phrase ‘every Tom, Dick and Harry’ which is like that (UK)
If we’re talking about a generic person it’s usually Mr/s Smith or Mr/s Jones (near Wales)
Do you have “every man and his dog”? (Same meaning as every Tom Dick or Harry")
Yeah we do :)
In Australia we have Joe Bloggs, but it sounds English. Do you have him in England?
Yup, he gets everywhere
In the Philippines, it’s Juan and Maria dela Cruz, although those have fallen out of use due to the popularity of Western (aka US) culture. Interesting reading about every country’s own names for their everyman.
In the Netherlands there’s “Jan Modaal”, modaal (modal) referring the most commonly occurring value in or peak of a distribution. This name is used often when representing the experience of the most average Dutchman.
It’s especially often used in financial discussions and journalism, like “owning a house is getting further out of reach for Jan Modaal.”
Which correlates nicely with the English expression “your average Joe”!
In Belgium we mostly use Jan met de pet (“Jan with the cap”)
We also have the slur of “sjonnie en anita” when talking about lower class, anti social people, “sjonnie” being the man and “anita” the woman. Both are very common names in older generations, less common in younger generations.
Would Jan Lul be relevant to this discussion?
deleted by creator
Ingrid en Henk, too, for the run of they mill boomer stereotype
In Norway we have “Ola Nordmann” and “Kari Nordmann”. Ola and Kari are pretty common and generic names. Nordmann literally means Norwegian, but can also be used as a last name.
In the UK it is Joe Bloggs
Also Fred Bloggs in Australia — maybe they’re related?
Not to stifle further discussion, but this Wikipedia page has a wealth of examples
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_placeholder_names_by_language
The examples for places was interesting.
We have “Eketahuna” (meaning, a small town, middle of nowhere). Eketahuna is a real place ha ha.
We have “Waikikamukau” which is a fictional small town. In bad pakeha pronunciation accent it would sound like “why kick a moo cow”).
(Aotearoa/NZ)
I’d attest to that Juan de la Cruz for the most generic Filipino name. de la Cruz still works as a very common surname though I don’t think Juan is still used as much as back then.
And then there are the placeholder phrases, all of which I’ve heard and used.
Uy, ku’nin mo ang ano, yung kuan, iyon! Ay, ano nga ba ang tawag d’yan? Noong ninety kopong-kopong pa namin binili iyan kina ano… Ano nga ba’ng pangalan niya?
Amazing, Ive been learning German for 8 years and just had a great laugh!
In Vietnam, I think it’s just most names 😂. Anh Nguyen is probably a good example. Most Vietnamese have the last name Nguyen. The national naming conventions rival that of religious families in the west. Think, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Anh, An, Thanh, and Minh. Women are the same, but named after things considered beautiful, Tuyet, Hong, Pham, Van.
Funny enough, many names aren’t always gendered, so I’ve met a decent amount of couples with the same first and last names. An Thi Nguyen, and An Van Nguyen is a couple that comes to mind. I dont have to worry about doxxing, since I bet that exists over 1000x here.
In the UK for a random guy it’s usually Joe Bloggs.
Flemish talking part of Belgium it is Jan Janssen
In Finnish it’s Matti Meikäläinen for male and Maija Meikäläinen for woman. Matti Meikäläinen roughly translates to Matt Myself
So that might be Matty and Miya Meiikaalayinen. Dealing with diacritics from a language that has none is a bit tricky.
Am I even close?
Sweden: Svensson, although the most common surname is Andersson.
Specifically for Gothenburg - Glenn “everybody is called Glenn in Gothenburg”, or older use - Kålle (male) and Ada (female). Not used that often.
