International equivalents of 'John Doe' Quiz by Esme

Name	Country
Max Mustermann
Nanashi-no-Gonbei
Juan de la Cruz
Imya Rek
Matti Meikäläinen
Janko Mrkvička
Hong Gildong
Mario Rossi
Felix Muster
Kovács János
Ola Nordmann
Chichiko Bendeliani
Nguyễn Văn
Jan Jansen

Name	Country
Fulano de Tal
Jean Dupont
Ploni Almoni
Medelsvensson
Zhang San
Si Polan
Fred Bloggs
Joe Borg
Vardenis Pavardenis
Tan Ah Kow
Pepe Pérez
Si Anu
Seán Citizen
Jaan Tamm

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There are 7 comments for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)

International Male Placeholder Names Quiz

by Esme

Created Dec 22, 2009 in Language
Game Plays 182

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	Esme:	Dec 23rd, 2009 at 02:38 GMT		1 point
	We all know how Wikipedia is...give me your corrections/suggestions so that I can include them! :) And also, if anyone has some good African equivalents, please let me know -- I tried hard to find some but came up empty. Thanks! :)

	Shinogee:	Dec 23rd, 2009 at 13:34 GMT		2 points
	Great quiz! Some of them were a bit harder than I thought... A note on the Japanese: I wouldn't say "nyoro nyoro" is really an equivalent to "John Doe"; it's more like the English expression "what's-his-name" (and even for that, the expression "dare-dare" is far more common--in fact, I've never heard the former used in actual conversation). I'd say a much better answer would be 名無しの権兵衛 Nanashi-no-Gonbei ("Nameless Gombei").

	Esme:	Dec 23rd, 2009 at 15:12 GMT		1 point
	@Shinogee: Thank you! I will change it now. I actually used a few different sources to try to confirm Wikipedia, and some that listed multiple choices for each country did give "Nanashi-no-Gonbei" as well as "Nyoro Nyoro," so it's good to be able to refine it a little more. With a few of them, it was hard to distinguish "John Doe" from "Joe Public" and other variants, so hopefully we'll get the nuances sorted out. :)

	elnok:	Dec 23rd, 2009 at 20:23 GMT		1 point
	There's a huge, encompassing list at http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lan_joh_doe_inf_nam_for_unk_or_uns_per_in_var_cou-unspecified-persons-various-countries-regions. Hungarian "Kovacs Janos" means "John Smith," although I've also heard "Barna Janos," which is John Brown.

	GamesmasterG_9:	Dec 24th, 2009 at 00:38 GMT		1 point
	Aam Aadmi directly translates into "Ordinary Man". It is rarely used as a placeholder. "Namalum" which means "unknown" is the preferred term in criminal cases in India.

	Esme:	Dec 24th, 2009 at 03:56 GMT		1 point
	@elnok: The idea isn't that the names will translate as "John Doe"; the idea is that they're used in the same manner. :) Do you think Kovács János should be changed? Most sources I found did say that, though some list Gipsz Jakab as an alternate. (And while I do love the page you linked, it's copied from the same Wikipedia list I used; I tried to only use ones for which I could find legitimate sources.) @GamesmasterG_9: Google doesn't seem to like "Namalum." Is there perhaps another spelling that's more common? ...or should I maybe consider removing India entirely, since further Googling seems to indicate there are different names based on regional language (which makes complete sense)? Thanks again, everyone!

	GamesmasterG_9:	Dec 24th, 2009 at 17:56 GMT		3 points
	@esme: I'm not sure about the spelling, but "namalum" is a Hindi word, so its almost certain that many states use different words. I think dropping India may be the best idea.