John Doe

"John Doe" (for males) and "Jane Doe" (for females) are multiple-use names that are used when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law enforcement in the United States, such names are often used to refer to a corpse whose identity is unknown or unconfirmed. Secondly, such names are also often used to refer to a hypothetical "everyman" in other contexts, in a manner similar to "John Q. Public" or "Joe Public". There are many variants to the above names, including "John Roe", "Richard Roe", "Jane Roe" and "Baby Doe", "Janie Doe" or "Johnny Doe" (for children).
Use in criminal investigation.
In other English-speaking countries, unique placeholder names, numbers or codenames have become more often used in the context of police investigations. This has included the United Kingdom, where usage of "John Doe" originated during the Middle Ages. However, the legal term "John Doe injunction" or "John Doe order" has survived in English law and other legal systems influenced by it. Other names, such as "Joe Bloggs" or "John Smith", have sometimes been informally used as placeholders for an everyman in the UK, Australia and New Zealand; however such names are seldom used in legal or police circles in the same sense as John Doe.
Well-known legal cases named after placeholders include:
Use of "John Doe" in the sense of an everyman, includes:
Use of "John Doe" an unidentified male murder victim found dead in Tucson, Arizona in a field on October 27 1981.
Use of "John Doe" in the sense of an unidentified man (anonymous), includes:
Use of "Jane Doe" in the sense of an unidentified corpse, includes:
History.
Under the legal terminology of Ancient Rome, the names ""Numerius Negidius" and "Aulus Agerius"" were used in relation to hypothetical defendants and plaintiffs.
The name "John Doe" (or "John Do"), "Richard Roe", along with "John Roe", were regularly invoked in English legal instruments to satisfy technical requirements governing standing and jurisdiction, beginning perhaps as early as the reign of England's King Edward III (1327–1377). Though the rationale behind the choices of Doe and Roe is unknown, there are many suggested folk etymologies. Other fictitious names for a person involved in litigation in medieval English law were "John Noakes" (or "Nokes") and "John-a-Stiles" (or "John Stiles"). The "Oxford English Dictionary" states that John Doe is "the name given to the fictitious lessee of the plaintiff, in the (now obsolete in the UK) mixed action of ejectment, the fictitious defendant being called Richard Roe".
This usage is mocked in the 1834 English song "John Doe and Richard Roe":
This particular use became obsolete in the UK in 1852:
In the UK, usage of "John Doe" survives mainly in the form of John Doe injunction or John Doe order (see above).
Unlike the United States, the name "John Doe" does not actually appear in the formal name of the case, for example: X & Y v Persons Unknown [2007] HRLR 4.
Well-known cases of unidentified corpses include "Cali Doe" (1979) and "Princess Doe" (1982). The baby victim in a 2001 murder case in Kansas City, Missouri, was referred to as Precious Doe.
In 2009, the "New York Times" reported the difficulties and unwanted attention experienced by a man actually named John Doe, who had often been suspected of using a pseudonym. He had been questioned repeatedly by airport security staff. Another man named John Doe was often suspected of being an incognito celebrity.
Other variants.
In cases where a large number of unidentified individuals are mentioned, numbers may be appended, such as "Doe #2" or "Doe II". Operation Delego (2009), which targeted an international child sexual abuse ring, cited 21 numbered "John Does", as well as other people known by the surnames "Doe", "Roe", and "Poe".
"John Stiles", "Richard Miles" have been used for the third and fourth participants in an action. "Mary Major" has been used in some federal cases in the US. "James Doe" and "Judy Doe" are among other common variants.
Less often, other surnames ending in "-oe" have been used when more than two unknown or unidentified persons are named in U.S. court proceedings, "e.g.", "Poe v. Snyder", 834 F.Supp.2d 721 (W. D. Mich. 2011), whose full style is
In Massachusetts, "Mary Moe" is used to refer to pregnant women under the age of 18 petitioning the Superior Court for a judicial bypass exception to the parental consent requirement for abortion.
"Mary Moe" is also used to refer to such cases generally, i.e. "Mary Moe cases". Sometimes "Mary Doe" may be used for the individuals.
Parallels in other countries include:
Famous court cases.
The use and selection of pseudonyms is not standardized in U.S. courts and the practice itself is opposed on legal grounds by some and was rare prior to 1969.