List of placeholder names by language

This is a list of placeholder names (words that can refer to things, persons, places, time, numbers and other concepts whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown in the context in which they are being discussed) in various languages.
Afrikaans.
In Afrikaans, "dinges" ('thing'), "goeters" ('things'), "watsenaam" ('what's its name') are common placeholders.
Places.
A common placeholder name for a semi-mythological place - much the same as Timbuktu - is "Pofadder" (a real town).
A general term for a far away, remote/rural environment is "Boendoe".
Time.
"Van die jaar toet" (from the year of "tut") is often used to indicate an unspecified, long time ago.
"Negentien-voetsek" often refers to a long time ago and is based on the early 1900s.
Arabic.
Arabic uses "Fulan", "Fulana[h]" (فلان / فلانة) and when a last name is needed it becomes "Fulan AlFulani", "Fulana[h] AlFulaniyya[h]" (فلان الفلاني / فلانة الفلانية). When a second person is needed, "ʿillan", "ʿillana[h]" (علان / علانة) is used. The use of "Fulan" has been borrowed into Spanish, Portuguese, Persian, Turkish and Malay, as shown below.
Bengali.
Bengali uses the universal placeholder ইয়ে "iay". Its generally placed for a noun which cannot be recalled by the speaker at the time of his/her speech. ইয়ে "iay" can be used for nouns, adjectives, and verbs (in conjunction with light verbs). অমুক "omuk" can also be a placeholder for people or objects. ফলনা/ফলানা "folona/folana" and its female equivalent ফলনি "foloni" is a placeholder specific to people. The phrase এ যে "e je" roughly translates to "you know" although the literal meaning is "this that". To refer to an extended family or generation the phrase চৌদ্দ গোষ্ঠী "chouddo goshthi" is used. It can also mean "everyone one knows", when used in a context of telling your "chouddo gosthi" something and not keeping a secret.
Bosnian.
Bosnian uses the name "hepek" to refer to any object or person. The word was often used by "Top Lista Nadrealista".
Bosnian version of John Smith is "Mujo Mujić" or "Petar Petrović" or "Marko Marković".
The word "limburg" is used as a non-existent month, so if something will happen in the month of Limburg, it will never happen.
Bulgarian.
In Bulgarian, "такова" ("takova", such) or "таковата" ("takovata", lit. the such) can be used in place of a noun, and "таковам" ("takovam") as a verb. The latter often can have obscene connotations, but it is generally not considered profane.
Placeholder names for people include: "Иван" ("Ivan"), "Драган" ("Dragan") and "Петкан" ("Petkan"); used in this order. "Ivan" is the most common Bulgarian name, while the other two are quite old-fashioned. "Петър Петров" ("Petar Petrov") is most commonly an ordinary person with no interesting qualities.
A colloquial placeholder name for towns is the railway junction of Kaspichan, which often bears the connotation of a far-off forgotten place. Villages could be referred to as "Горно Нанадолнище" ("Gorno Nanadolnishte"), literally "Upper Downhill".
Distant places can be referred to as "на майната си" ("майна" is archaic dialectal for 'mother', now an obscenity), "на гъза на географията" (at geography's ass). Short distance may be referred to as "на една плюнка разстояние" (at a spit's distance), "на един хуй място" (at a dick's length).
Time that is never to come is expressed as "на Куково лято" (in Cuco's summer), "на Куков ден" (at Cuco's day) (Cuco is not a human name and therefore there is no such name-day, so the two expressions are quite close in meaning to 'on the Greek calends' or 'when pigs fly'), "на Върба в сряда" (on Palm Sunday in Wednesday).
Catalan.
Catalan uses the names "daixonses" / "daixonsis" and "dallonses" / "dallonsis" to refer to any object or person; "d'això" ("of this") and "d'allò" ("of that") are also used with the same purpose.
The verb "fotre" or less commonly "fúmer" or "cardar" (all literally meaning "to have sex") can be used to replace any other verb, though they are most commonly used instead of "fer" ("to do"), "menjar" ("to eat") and "posar" ("to put").
E.g. "què fots?", "m'he fotut una paella per sopar" or "l'he fotut al costat de la porta" mean respectively "what are you doing?", "I had a paella for supper" and "I put it beside the door".
Cebuano.
Cebuano uses "kuan" (also spelled "kuwan", "kwan", or "ku-an") for an object, person, place, time, action, or modifier. It can be a noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, or adverb. In context, the specific article or preposition used can be useful in determining what the speaker might be referring to (e.g. "si kuan" will always refer to a person). It is also used in hesitant or uncertain speech as an interjection (equivalent to English um, erm, uh). The word is also used in other languages like Maguindanao, Maranao, Pangasinense, etc., but it is gradually becoming obsolete in Tagalog where the word "ano" ("what", "the what") is common.
In some Cebuano areas, for a known person with a name withheld, it uses a Spanish practice of using "Fulano" (Fulana when the person is a female).
Chinese.
In Chinese, question words are used as placeholders. An unspecified object is "shénme" or "shénme shénme "() and an unspecified location is "nǎlǐ" ().
The particle "mǒu" (某) often forms part of a placeholder. It occurs as a prefix of generic nouns (e.g. 某人 "some person"), perhaps with an intervening measure word (e.g. 某一場演出 "a certain show"), or substituting people's actual names (e.g. 李某 "Li Something").
Common placeholder names are:
When more than three placeholders are needed, these are also occasionally used:
Zhang, Li, Wang, Zhao and Sun are among the most common Chinese surnames.
In all kinds of English exams in high school, Li Hua () is often used as the character example in writing tests.
In Hong Kong, two other placeholder names, Wong Siu Ming () and Chan Tai Man (), are also used. Of note is that while the surnames Wong and Chan are common surnames, the given names are not: Siu Ming more closely translates to "little Ming" and is more a nickname than an official name, while Tai Man is used due to the characters being simple and quick to write.
The expression 猴年马月 ("monkey year horse month") denotes an unknown but remote time in the future. For example, 等到猴年马月 is often translated as "to wait forever".
Croatian.
Persons.
 or are a few Croatian versions of John Doe. is used particularly as a typical name for a member of the Croatian nation, since it literally means "Croatey (the) Croatian" in the Croatian language.
Czech.
Things.
There are several placeholder words for things such as (gadget), etc.
Persons.
 or for men and or for women are Czech versions of John Doe/Jane Doe.
Places.
A placeholder name for a distant place is , for a remote village or ("Upper Lower"), for a crazy town etc. Another word for remote place is .
The phrase (literally, "where the foxes say goodnight") refers to a remote and isolated place, like "the middle of nowhere".
Danish.
Things.
In Danish a common placeholder word is "dims" (derived from German "Dings"), used for small unspecified objects (gadgets). Long, thin and pointy objects may be called "javert" or "javertus", derived from the verb "jage" in the meaning 'thrust'. Other placeholders for objects are "dingenot", "dimsedut", "dippedut", "huddelifut", "himstregims", "himstregimst" and "tingest"; "sager" (lit. 'stuff') and "grej" (lit. 'gear').
Persons.
In common parlance and as a placeholder a variety can be used. "Navn Navnesen" (Name Nameson) is an example.
In civil law A, B, C etc. are used. In criminal law T is used for the accused (tiltalte), V is a non-law enforcement witness (vidne), B is a police officer (betjent) and F or FOU is the victim (forurettede). When more than one a number is added, e.g. V1, V2 and B1, B2.
Places.
Faraway countries are often called "Langtbortistan", lit. "Farawayistan".
Backwards places in the countryside are called "Lars Tyndskids marker", lit. "The fields of Lars Diarrhea" which is similarly pronounced word play on an earlier form: "Lars tøndeskiders marker", lit. "The fields of Lars the barrel shitter" – a reference to areas in the countryside where Lars the farmer has to relieve himself on a barrel, because there is no sewer system.
The word "langtpokkerivold" is a placeholder for a place far far away e.g. "he kicked the ball langtpokkerivold".
Dutch.
Things.
In Dutch the primary placeholder is "dinges" (derived from "ding", "thing"), used for both objects and persons, and sometimes turned into a verb ("dingesen"). The diminutive of "ding", "dingetje" (lit. "little thing" or "thingy") serves as a placeholder for objects when used with an article, and for persons without.
In Belgian Dutch you can call a small village "t hol van pluto" ('the hole of pluto').
In Flanders, an obsolete object (or an old fashioned person) is said to date "van de jaren Stillekes" (from the Gently years) or in Dutch "zo oud als Methusalem" (as old as the biblical Methuselah); "van het jaar kruik" (from the year of the crock), referring to Roman times, is less used.
Persons.
The equivalent of "John Doe" for an unspecified (but not an unidentified) person is "Jan Jansen" ("Jansen" being one of the most common Dutch surnames), or in vulgar speech "Jan Lul" ("John Dick"); "Jan met de korte achternaam" ("John with the short surname") is used in the place of "Jan Lul" to avoid vulgarity. "Jan Modaal" ("John Average") is the average consumer and "Jan Publiek" ("John Public") and "Jan met de pet" ("John with the cap") the man in the street while "Jan Soldaat" (John Soldier) is the average soldier.
In Belgium, the Dutch name for an unspecified person is sometimes said to be "Jef Van Pijperzele", though most people just use "Jan Jansen" instead. The latter is used in the Netherlands as well. ("Jef" is a common pet form of "Jozef". Another pet form is "Jos".) The average couple may be "Mieke en Janneke" (Molly and Jenny). In 2010 the politician Geert Wilders introduced "Henk en Ingrid" as to describe the average Dutch couple. For some time, lower class young people were called "Sjonnie en Anita".
"Elckerlyc" (literally 'Every-body' in old Dutch) is a character from a medieval play "Elckerlyc en de Dood" (Everyman and Death). It is sometimes used to say "any mortal".
Places.
Obscure, faraway places are "Timboektoe" (inspired by Dutch Donald Duck comics) and "Verweggistan" ('Faraway-i-stan'). "Lutjebroek", a real village, is also used in this sense. The fictitious village "Bommerskonte" (also spelled as "Bommerskonten") is small, not very important and in Flanders. "Bommelskont" and "Schubbekutteveen" are equivalents in the Netherlands.
Time.
"Sint-Juttemis" is used as a nonsensical date, meaning "never", even though it may be derived from a real saint's day.
"Als pasen en pinksteren op één dag vallen" (When Easter and Pentecost fall on the same day) is also used for "never". Another version is "Als de kalveren op het ijs dansen" (When the calves dance on the ice). This is sometimes combined with Sint Juttemis ("Met Sint-Juttemis, als de kalveren op het ijs dansen").
In Brussels Dutch dialect, an unspecified far-ago time is "den taaid van de blieke pataten" (the time when potatoes were pale blue).
Numbers.
Similar to German, the word for an unknown amount is "Tig", used like "umpteen". It stems from the suffix used for double-digit numbers ("Twintig" twenty, "Veertig" forty), and is usually used in an aggravated context. "Ik heb dat al tig keer geprobeerd!" ("I've tried that umpteen times already!").
English.
See Placeholder name.
Esperanto.
Esperanto has an all-purpose placeholder suffix "um", which has no fixed meaning and simply tells that an object or action has something to do with some purpose or object, for instance "butonumi" ("to button up" or "to press a button"). It has acquired a specific meaning in some compounds, like "brakumi", "to embrace", from "brako", "arm".
The placeholder suffix was originally devised as a catch-all derivation affix. Once affixes became routinely used as roots and inflected, "um" became a placeholder lexeme, which would take affixes of its own: "umi" "to thingummy", "umilo" "a thingummy tool", "umado" "thingummying" etc. A common popular derivative is "umaĉi" (with pejorative suffix –aĉ–), "to do something fishy". The affix-turned-lexeme "aĵo" "thing" is also arguably a place holder, since it is less specific than the older lexeme "objekto". "Afero" "business" is a lexeme used as an abstract placeholder.
The particle "ajn" ('any') can also be used as a placeholder. A generic object may be called "io ajn" ('anything', 'some thing'), or "ajno" (informal); the forms "ajna" ('any kind of') and "ajne" ('in any way') are acceptable colloquial synthetic variants of the longer and more formal "ia ajn" and "iel ajn". In combination with the person suffix "-ul-" and the word "sinjoro" ('Mr.'), this particle is also used to form the expression "sinjoro Ajnulo", which is sometimes used in a similar way as "John Doe" in English.
Something that will never happen can be described as occurring "en la tago de la sankta Neniamo" ("on Saint Never's Day").
Finnish.
Things.
"Härveli" one of the most common Finnish placeholder words for technical objects and machinery, it's usually a placeholder for any device which lacks a proper word and often has unknown operating logic, but is useful and has no direct negative association. "Hilavitkutin" on the other hand is negative and refers to devices that are apparently useless and make no sense. "Vehje" is a very common "thing" word for devices and is by default emotionally neutral, but it is also used as slang for the male genital. "Laite" can be used instead of vehje.
An idiosyncratically Finnish placeholder word is "mikälie" or "mikä lie", literally "whatever (it) may be". It utilizes the Finnish verb form "lie" or "lienee", meaning "(it) probably is" – i.e., "to be" in the potential mood. This inflected word form is quite rare in everyday speech, which has resulted in its grammatical function being (mis)interpreted by native speakers as a grammatical particle instead of a verb. This, in turn, has given rise to constructions such as "mikälie". Analogously persons are "kuka lie" "whoever he may be", locations "missä lie" "in wherever", etc.
"Juttu" has the literal meanings "story", "criminal/court case", or "issue", but may refer to virtually anything inanimate.
Persons.
Placeholders for people include the ubiquitous "" (male) and "Maija Meikäläinen" (female), and the relatively less common "Anna Malli" (literally Anna the Model, but can also be understood as "Give me an example", female) or "Tauno Tavallinen" ("Tauno the Ordinary", male) . In official contexts, the initials "N.N." (from the Latin "nomen nescio", "name unknown") are used.
"Meikäläinen" means literally "one of us, one of our side", but sounds similar to a genuine Finnish surname, many of which end in "-lainen/-läinen". Sometimes, "Totti Teikäläinen" ("teikäläinen" means "one of you people, one of your side") can be used, where a contrast to "Matti Meikäläinen" is needed.
The names Matti Virtanen and Ville Virtanen is sometimes also used, because they are said to combine the most common first names and surnames; however, they are also real names for this reason.
The common nouns "tyyppi" "character" or "figure" via Swedish, "kaveri" "fellow" and "joku" "someone" may be used as placeholders for persons. "Kaveri" is often used in an ironic sense about a known person whose name is unknown, in the same sense as "fellow" is used in English. "Tyyppi" is usually combined with "joku" to form "joku tyyppi" for an unknown character with unknown intentions.
"Pihtiputaan mummo" ("the grandmother from Pihtipudas") is the proverbial least knowledgeable and therefore least capable person to adapt to a new technology, such as the euro or digital TV.
Places.
The most common placeholder name for a remote location or a "backwater town" is "Takahikiä". Actual locations in Finland that have acquired a similar status include "Peräseinäjoki" and, to some extent, "Pihtipudas", though the latter is mostly associated with the proverbial "grandmother from Pihtipudas" explained above. They are usually spelled with a small initial letter when they are used as placeholder names.
Stereotypical foreign, distant places are "Timbuktu" and "Indokiina". Other places, whose actual coordinates are unknown and obscure, but which clearly are far away, are "Himputti", "Hornantuutti" (chute of Hell), "Huitsin-Nevada" and "Hevonkuusi" ("Horse's Spruce" cf. "in the sticks").
Time.
Obscurity in time can be expressed as "viidestoista päivä" (fifteenth day). "Tuohikuussa pukinpäivän aikaan" refers to an obscure future date (literally "at Buck's day on Barkember"). "Nappisodan aikaan" "at the time of the button wars" refers to something that happened a long time ago. Another common term is "Vuonna keppi ja kivi", which literally means "at the year stick-and-stone", but the word "keppi" "stick" and "kivi" "stone" may be replaced with other word like "nakki" "frankfurter", "miekka" "sword", "kilpi" "shield" or other word that relates to old times.
Numbers.
Placeholders for large numbers include "ziljoona" and "biljardi". The latter is a portmanteau of "miljardi" (109) and "biljoona" (1012, see Billion). It has an intentional double meaning, as the word also means "billiards", and "can" also mean 1015.
Military usage.
In Finnish military slang, "tsydeemi" traditionally refers to a special type of socks worn during wintertime. However, it has become a common generic placeholder word outside the military, possibly due to its phonetic similarity to the aforementioned "systeemi".
In the Finnish Defence Forces, placeholder names for soldiers include "Nönnönnöö" (no meaning, derived from "N.N."), "Senjanen" (rendered from genitive "Senjasen" expanding into "sen-ja-sen" (this-and-that), "Omanimi" ("Private His-name") and "Te" ("Private You"). Any weapon, device or piece of equipment is called "vekotin". This has actually pointed to the abbreviation VKT, Valtion Kivääritehdas (State Rifle Factory), and referred to light machine gun VKT23, which originally was called "vekotin".
French.
Things.
In French, an unspecified artifact can be:
Some of these may be combined in several variations, with "truc" possibly being appended with the meaningless "-muche": "machin-truc", "machin-chose", "bidule-truc-muche" are common combinations.
"Schmilblick" was a placeholder name in a 60s radio game show for a mystery object discovered by asking questions. It gained fame from a well-known sketch by Coluche and is now commonly used for any strange object. The strip series "les Schtroumpfs", whose characters (blue midgets) used "schtroumpf" for any object and "schtroumpfer" for any action, led to the use of those two as common placeholders, although it is mainly used for persons. This was recast in English as the Smurfs.
Quebec French also has "patente", "gogosse", "cossin", "affaire", "bebelle" and such (most of which have verb forms meaning “to fiddle with”). Acadian French has "amanchure", "bardasserie" and "machine". Louisiana French has "machine" and "maniguette".
In Brussels slang, "brol" is either a heap of random small objects, or a nondescript object of little value.
In computer science research, "toto", "titi", "tata" and "tutu" sometimes replace the English "foo" and "bar" as placeholder names for variables, functions and the likes.
Persons.
Common placeholder names for people are
Places.
In France:
In French-speaking Belgium, Outsiplou or even Outsiplou-les-Bains-de-Pieds (Outsiplou-the-footbath) is a generic village of Wallonia. There is an actual but little known village near Liège named Hout-si-Plout, whose name means "Listen whether it rains" in Walloon, and a hamlet named Hoûte-si-Ploût in Belgian Luxemburg.
Among French people of North African origin ("Pieds-Noirs"), Foun-Tataouine is the generic village and Tataouine-les-Bains (Tataouine-the-Baths, les-bains is frequent in the name of spa towns) is the average city, possibly from the village of that name in Tunisia.
In Quebec:
Far away rural places:
Time.
To refer to an event that will never occur, one can use "à la Saint-Glinglin", or "aux Calendes grecques" or "La semaine des quatre jeudis" (the week with four Thursdays, because in the past children had no school on Thursday). One can also refer to an event which will never occur by saying "tous les trente-six du mois", meaning "Every thirty-sixth of the month", or "quand les poules auront des dents" ("when hens have teeth", which is the equivalent of the English "when pigs will fly").
There is a well-known judgment about a debtor who committed himself to pay on Saint-Glinglin's Day, his creditor apparently not knowing it does not exist. The judge decided the discharge would take place on All Saints Day, as the proper time to honour saints who do not have their own dedicated day, including fake ones.
Georgian.
Chichiko Bendeliani (ჭიჭიკო ბენდელიანი) may be used for the indefinite person, e.g. when one is telling a story about someone which identification is not necessary or does not affect the sense. It is important to use the full name of Chichiko Bendeliani when used singly, as anything else would make the name too specific and lose the placeholder sense. The accompanying name would be Bichiko (ბიჭიკო). When used together with Chichiko, last names are not necessary. For example:
"Chichiko Bendeliani was crossing the road", or "Chichiko and Bichiko walk into a bar" to begin a joke.
German.
Things.
German also sports a variety of placeholders; some, as in English, contain the element "Dings", "Dingens" (also "Dingenskirchen"), "Dingsda", "Dingsbums", cognate with English "thing". Also, "Kram", "Krimskrams", "Krempel" suggests a random heap of small items, e.g., an unsorted drawerful of memorabilia or souvenirs. "Apparillo" (from "Apparat") may be used for any kind of machinery or technical equipment. In a slightly higher register, "Gerät" represents a miscellaneous artifact or utensil, or, in casual German, may also refer to an item of remarkable size. The use of the word "Teil" (part) is a relatively recent placeholder in German that has gained great popularity since the late 1980s. Initially a very generic term, it has acquired a specific meaning in certain contexts. "Zeug" or "Zeugs" (compare "Dings", can be loosely translated as 'stuff') usually refers to either a heap of random items that is a nuisance to the speaker, or an uncountable substance or material, often a drug. Finally, "Sache", as a placeholder, loosely corresponding to Latin "res", describes an event or a condition. A generic term used especially when the speaker cannot think of the exact name or number, also used in enumerations analogously to "et cetera", is the colloquial "schlag-mich-tot" or "schieß-mich-tot" (literally "strike/shoot me dead", to indicate that the speaker's memory fails him/her).
A generic technical device (as opposed to i.e. a brand item) is often called a "08/15" (after the WWI-era MG 08 machine gun, whose extensive mass production gave it its "generic" character) pronounced in individual numbers "null-acht-fuff-zehn".
Persons.
The German equivalent to the English "John Doe" for males and "Jane Doe" for females would be "Max Mustermann" (Max Exampleperson) and "Erika Mustermann", respectively. For the former, "Otto Normalverbraucher" (after the protagonist of the 1948 movie "Berliner Ballade", named in turn after the "standard consumer" for ration cards) is also widely known. "Fritz" or "Fritzchen" is often used as a placeholder in jokes for a mischievous little boy (little Johnny), "-fritze" for a person related to something, as in "Fahrradfritze" (literally Bicycle Fred, the (unspecified) person who repairs, or is in some way connected to, bicycles). In a similar vein there is "Onkel Fritz" (lit. Uncle Fred).
"Hanswurst" (lit. Jack sausage) is used in a derogatoty way. "Hans Arsch" (lit. Jack arse) is used for any common person, and "Schlagmichtot" (lit. Beat me (to) death) is used when ones name is unknown or forgotten.
There is also "Krethi und Plethi", "Hinz und Kunz", or "Hans und Franz" for everybody similar to the English "Tom, Dick and Harry" if not in a slightly more derogatory way. Similary "Arsch und Friedrich" (lit. Arse and Frederick) is used for something boring, especially for bland food. For many years, Erika Mustermann has been used on the sample picture of German ID cards ("Personalausweis"). In Austria, "Max Mustermann" is used instead. Sometimes the term "Musterfrau" is used as the last name placeholder, possibly because it is felt to be more politically correct gender-wise. When referring to an "Average Joe", the names "Otto Normalverbraucher" and "Lieschen Müller" (female) are commonly used, corresponding to the American "The Joneses". Otto Normalverbraucher is taken from bureaucratic jargon of post-World War II food rationing via the name of a 1948 film character (played by Gert Fröbe), while the name Lieschen Müller became popular in the year 1961 due to the movie "Der Traum von Lieschen Müller". Military jargon also includes "Jäger Dosenkohl" ("Private Tinned-Cabbage") and "Jäger Haumichblau" ("Private Beat-Me-Blue") as derogatory placeholders for the name of a (poorly-performing) recruit. In Cologne, "Otto" (which can also refer to a gadget) and "Gerdi" are popularly used for men or boys and women/girls with unknown first names. "Bert" also had some popularity as a placeholder for names in the past.
Places.
For remote or exotic locations, Germans use "Timbuktu", "Buxtehude", "Walachei" "(Wallachia)", "Weitfortistan" ("weit fort" = "far away"), "Dort, wo der Pfeffer wächst" ("Where the pepper grows"). Other, somewhat derogatory terms for remote locations are "Arsch der Welt" ("arse of the world") or "Arsch der Heide" ("arse of the heath"). For towns or villages in the German-speaking world, "Kuhdorf" or "Kuhkaff" or just "Kaff" (lit. "cow village", somewhat derogatory) and "Kleinkleckersdorf" (lit. "Little-Messy-Village"), "Kleinsiehstenich" (lit. "Little-you-don't-see-it"), "Hintertupfing"/"Hintertupfingen" (usually implies some small, rural and old-fashioned village) or "Dingenskirchen" ("Ding" is German for "thing" and "-kirchen" is a common ending of village names which is derived from "Kirche" meaning "church"); in Austria "Hinterdupfing" is also used. "Herr X. aus Y. an der Z.", which derives from usage in newspapers ("Mr. X from town Y. on the river Z."), is used occasionally. Other terms such as "Bad Sonstwo an der Irgend" (lit.: "Somewhere-Else Spa upon Whatever [river]") have been suggested. For remote and rural places there is also the term "Wo Fuchs und Hase sich gute Nacht sagen" (lit. "where fox and hare tell each other good night"). The abbreviation "JWD" (short for "ganz weit draußen" in a Berlin accent that replaces /g/ with /j/), meaning "very far away", is used for remote towns or suburbs (far from the city center). Staycations are spent on "Balkonien" (sounding like a country, "Balconia", but meaning one's balcony) or at "Bad Meingarten" (sounding like a spa, but "mein Garten" means "my garden").
Time.
Unlikely days are "Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag" ("St Neverling's Day"). "Anno dazumal" ("Anno" in those days), a variation on Anno Domini, is sometimes used for "back then" or "back in the day", referring to events that happened a long time ago.
Numbers.
For abstract large numbers the numeral suffix "-zig" (as in "zwanzig" = 20, "vierzig" = 40, "sechzig" = 60) is used like 'umpteen': "Das habe ich schon zigmal gesagt!" ('I already said so umpteen times'). An unknown ordinal number is "was-weiß-ich-wievielte/r/s" ('what do I know how many-th') or "drölf" (fictional integer whose name is a portmanteau of the words "zwölf", 12, and "dreizehn", 13). Exponents of 10 are also used as in English.
Greek.
In Greek mostly two "official" placeholders for people are used, "tade" (original meaning was 'these here') and "deina" (which has been a placeholder since antiquity). There is also the name "Foufoutos" used more jokingly. Unofficially, most placeholders are improvised, derived from pronouns, such as "tetoios" "such", "apotetoios" "the from-such", "apaftos", "o aftos" "the that" or "o etsi" "the like-that". For locations, "stou diaolou ti mana" "at the devil's mother" and ston agyristo "to hell/to the place with no return" serve as a placeholder for a distant place.
For time, 30th or 31 February serves as a placeholder for events that will never happen.
The Greek equivalent of John Smith is Yannis Papadopoulos (Γιάννης Παπαδόπουλος) which is considered to be one of the most common names in Greece.
Hebrew.
In Hebrew, the word זה ("zeh", meaning 'this') is a placeholder for any noun. The term צ׳ופצ׳יק ("chúpchik", meaning a protuberance, particularly the diacritical mark geresh), a borrowing of Russian чубчик ("čúbčik", a diminutive of чуб "čub" "forelock") is also used by some speakers.
The most popular personal name placeholders are מה-שמו ("mah-shmo", 'whatsisname'), משה ("Moshe" = Moses) and יוֹסִי ("Yossi", common diminutive form of "Yosef") for first name, and כהן ("Cohen", the most common surname in Israel) for last name. However, in ID and credit card samples, the usual name is ישראל ישראלי ("Yisrael Yisraeli") for a man and ישראלה ישראלי ("Yisraela Yisraeli") for a woman (these are actual first and last names) – similar to John and Jane Doe.
The traditional terms are פלוני ("ploni") and its counterpart אלמוני ("almoni") (originally mentioned in Ruth 4:1). The combined term פלוני אלמוני ("ploni almoni") is also in modern official usage; for example, addressing guidelines by Israel postal authorities utilize "ploni almoni" as the addressee.
In the Talmud and in Jewish religious reasoning, and notably in responsa, personal placeholder names are often ראובן ("Reuven") and שמעון ("Shimon"), the names of the first- and second-born of the patriarch Jacob's twelve sons (as told in Book of Genesis).
A placeholder for a time in the far past is תרפפ"ו (pronounced "Tarapapu", which somewhat resembles a year in the Hebrew calendar but is not quite one).
Especially older Ashkenazi often employ the Yiddish placeholders "Chaim Yankel" and "Moyshe Zukhmir" ("zukh mir" meaning "look for me" in Yiddish). "Buzaglo" (a typical Moroccan Jewish surname) is a somewhat derogative placeholder for a simple lower-class citizen, particularly of Mizrahi descent (that is, Jews of Middle Eastern or North African origin). The term "Buzaglo test" was coined by then-Attorney General Aharon Barak in the 1970s for the proposition that the law should apply with equal leniency (or severity) to a senior public official and to the simplest ordinary citizen.
The Expression "בוקר טוב, אליהו" ("boker tov, Eliyahu", i.e., Good morning, Elijah) refers to someone finally understanding something that has been explained to them, where אליהו ("Eliyahu") is a placeholder for the listener who finally understood the concept.
Hindi.
Persons.
"Ajay" (Male) and "Priya" (Female) are common first names in Hindi. These two names appear often as placeholder names in primary school text books (say when teaching grammar/nouns). While "Kumar" (male), "Kumari" (female), and "Singh" (either gender) are some common second names. Combined, these will be safe placeholder names to use: "Ajay Kumar", "Priya Singh".
Hungarian.
In Hungarian the word "izé" (a stem of ancient Uralic heritage) refers primarily to inanimate objects but sometimes also to people, places, concepts, or even adjectives. Hungarian is very hospitable to derivational processes and the "izé-" stem can be further extended to fit virtually any grammatical category, naturally forming a rich family of derivatives: e.g. "izé" whatchamacallit (noun), "izés" whatchamacallit-ish (adjective), "izébb" or "izésebb" more whatchamacallit(ish) (comparative adjective), "izésen" in a whatchamacallitish manner (adverb), "izél" to whatchamacallit something (transitive verb), "izéltet" to cause someone to whatchamacallit (transitive verb), "izélget" to whatchamacallit continually (often meaning: pester, bother – frequentative verb). (In slang "izé" and its verbal and nominal derivatives often take on sexual meanings). In addition to its placeholder function, "izé" is an all-purpose hesitation word, like "ah", "er", "um" in English. Words with a similar meaning and use are "cucc", usually translated as 'stuff', and "bigyó", translated as either 'thing'/'thingie' or 'gadget'. More complex objects such as electronic devices, and especially novelty items could be referred with either "bigyó" (gadget) or "készség" (roughly 'contraption').
To name things, Hungarians also use "micsoda" (what-is-it), "hogyhívják" or "hogyishívják" (what-it's-called), "miafene" (what-the-heck), "bigyó" (thingie), "miafasz" ('what-the-fuck', literally 'what-the-dick').
John Smith (US: John Doe) is "Kovács János" or "Gipsz Jakab" (lit. John Smith or Jake Gypsum, or Jakob Gipsch, with surname followed by given name, as normal in Hungarian). However these names are not used in official reports (for example instead of US John/Jane Doe "ismeretlen férfi/nő" (unknown male/female) would appear in a police report). Samples for forms, credit cards etc. usually contain the name "Minta János" (John Sample) or "Minta Kata" (Kate Sample). "Gizike" and "Mancika", which are actual, though now relatively uncommon, female nicknames, are often used to refer to stereotypically obnoxious and ineffective female bureaucrats. Jokes sometimes refer to an older person named "Béla" (a quite common male given name), especially if it is implied that he is perverted or has an unusual sexual orientation despite his age.
As for place names, there is "Mucsaröcsöge" or "Csajágaröcsöge", little villages or boonies far out in the countryside, and "Kukutyin" or "Piripócs", νillages or small towns somewhere in the countryside. A general place reference is the phrase "(az) Isten háta mögött", meaning "behind the back of God", i.e. 'middle of nowhere'.
Icelandic.
In Icelandic, the most common placeholder name is Jón Jónsson for men, while Jóna Jónsdóttir is used for women. The common or average Icelander is referred to as Meðaljón (average Jón).
The Icelandic version of the Nordic words for faraway places is Fjarskanistan. This and the other Nordic counterparts come from Donald Duck comic magazines, in which Donald tends to end up in that country if he doesn't play his cards right.
Indonesian.
There is no single name that is widely accepted, but the name of Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, can be found in many articles; it has the advantages of being Javanese (about 45% of the Indonesian population), a single word (see Indonesian name), and well-known.
Other male names: Joni (Indonesian for Johnny), and Budi (widely used in elementary textbooks). Ini ibu Budi (this is Budi's mother) is a common phrase in primary school's standardized reading textbook from 1980s until it was removed in 2014. Popular female placeholder names are Ani,Sinta, Sri, Dewi.
Fulan (male) and Fulanah (female) are also often found, especially in religious articles (both are derived from Arabic).
Zaman kuda gigit besi (the era when horses bite iron) and zaman baheula indicates a very long time ago.
Interlingua.
Interlingua placeholders include "cosa", meaning 'thing', and "typo", meaning 'guy' or 'type'. "Cosalia" – a collection of things, especially useless things – is a less common placeholder. Like other Interlingua words, placeholders have been selected internationality.
Irish.
Things.
Common Irish placeholders for objects include "an rud úd" "that thing over there", "an rud sin eile" "that other thing", and "cá hainm seo atá air" "whatever its name is".
Persons.
In Irish, the common male name "Tadhg" is part of the very old phrase "Tadhg an mhargaidh" (Tadhg of the market-place) which combines features of the English phrases "average Joe" and "man on the street".
This same placeholder name, transferred to English-language usage and now usually rendered as Taig, became and remains a vitriolic derogatory term for an Irish Catholic and has been used by Unionists in Northern Ireland in such bloodthirsty slogans as "If guns are made for shooting, then skulls are made to crack. You’ve never seen a better Taig than with a bullet in his back" and "Don’t be vague, kill a Taig".
A generic male person can also be called "Seán Ó Rudaí" ("Sean O'Something", from "rud" "thing") or "Mac Uí Rudaí" ("O'Something's son"). Additional persons can be introduced by using other first names and inflecting the family name according to normal Irish conventions for personal names, such as "Síle Uí Rudaí" ("Sheila O'Something") for a married or elder woman and "Aisling Ní Rudaí" for a young or unmarried woman.
"Paddy", another derogatory placeholder name for an Irish person, lacks the sharpness of "Taig" and is often used in a jocular context or incorporated into mournful pro-Irish sentiment (e.g. the songs "Poor Paddy on the Railway" and "Paddy's Lament"). By contrast, the term "Taig" remains a slur in almost every context. "Biddy" (from the name Bridget) is a female equivalent placeholder name for Irish females.
Also note that the Hiberno-English placeholder names noted above ("Yer man", "Yer one" and "Himself/Herself") are long-established idioms derived from the syntax of the Irish language. "Yer man" and "yer one" are a half-translation of a parallel Irish-language phrase, "mo dhuine", literally "my person". This has appeared in songs, an example of which is The Irish Rover in the words "Yer man, Mick McCann, from the banks of the Bann".
Italian.
Things.
In Italian, standard placeholders for inanimate objects are "roba" (literally 'stuff'), "coso" (related to "cosa", 'thing'), less commonly "affare" (literally 'deal' or 'business'), and even less commonly "aggeggio" ('device' or 'gadget').
"Come si chiama" (literally 'what's it called') is also used for inanimate objects, expecting to be prompted by the listener with the correct word.
"Vattelapesca" ("go and catch it"), was once very much used for rare or uncommon objects. Now this term is quite obsolete.
The verb "cosare", derived from "cosa", is sometimes used as placeholder for any other verb.
Persons.
For people, widely used words are again "Coso" as a substitute for a proper noun, while a generic person is a "tizio" (see below for the Latin origin of this) or a "tipo" ('type') as well as "uno" ('one'). The latter is not accompanied by any article and disappears when used along with a demonstrative; thus, "a guy" is "un tipo" or "uno", whereas "that guy" is "quel tipo" or just "quello". The feminine versions are "tizia", "tipa" (colloquial), and "una", respectively. In the Venice area one can say "Piero Pers" ("Peter the Lost") for an unknown person.
"Mario Rossi" is a generic placeholder for people, especially in examples where first name and family name should appear, like in credit cards advertising. "Mario Rossi" is formed coupling one of the most used male first names in Italy, with one of the most frequent family names. Other common placeholder names for people are "Pinco Pallino" and "Tal dei Tali".
Also, there are specific terms (from male names common in ancient Rome) for six unnamed people. These terms, from administrative and jurisprudential texts, are "Tizio", "Caio", "Sempronio", "Mevio", "Filano", and "Calpurnio", but only the first three are used in current speech. They are always used in that order and with that priority; that is, one person is always "Tizio"; two persons are always "Tizio e Caio"; and three persons are always "Tizio, Caio, e Sempronio".
Places.
A place far away and out of reach is "a casa del diavolo" ('at the devil's house') or, more vulgarly, "in culo alla luna" ('in the moon's butt') or "in culo ai lupi" ('in the wolves' butt'). The same idea can be expressed by the name of the Sicilian town of "Canicattì", as well as by the two regional expressions (mostly confined to Sicily) "dove ha perso le scarpe il Signore" ('where the Lord lost his shoes') and "dove ha perso la camicia Cristo" ('where Christ lost his shirt').
Time.
"Alle calende greche" ("on the Greek kalends", which did not exist in the Greek calendar), "un domani" ("a tomorrow"), "sine die" (Latin for "without a day"), and other similar expressions mean "never". "Ad ogni morte di papa" ("at every death of a pope") means "very rarely". "Il giorno di San Mai" ("St. Never's Day"), or "Il mese del poi e l'anno del mai" ("The month of later on and the year of never", also spoken in reverse order), or "il 30 febbraio" ("February 30") means that an event is never going to take place.
Numbers.
Placeholders used for numbers are "cinquantaquattro" (54), "cinquantaquattromila" (54,000), and "diecimila" (10,000). The suffix "–anta" is used for ages in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s (from "quaranta", 40; "cinquanta", 50; "sessanta", 60; "settanta", 70; "ottanta", 80; and "novanta", 90); thus, the expression "essere sui quaranta" is used to say that someone is in his or her forties, although the same meaning is also commonly expressed by "essere sulla quarantina", and so on along the same pattern (on the model of the suffix "–antina").
ICT usage.
In information technology, especially in textbooks,
Japanese.
In Japanese, "naninani" (なになに, a doubled form of the word "nani", meaning 'what') is often used as a placeholder. It does not necessarily mean a physical object. For example, it is often used to stand in for an omitted word when discussing grammar. Similarly, "daredare" (だれだれ, doubled form of 'who') can be used for people, and "nantoka nantoka" (なんとかなんとか, doubled form of 'something') as a variant for things. "Hoge" (ほげ, no literal meaning) has been gaining popularity in the computing world, where it is used much like "foo" and "bar". "Nyoro nyoro" (literally "~~") is also a popular placeholder name.
On forms requiring a first and last name, the name "Yamada Tarō" (山田 太郎 or やまだ たろう) is often used as a place holder. "Tarō" was once an extremely common name for boys, but it has lost popularity significantly in recent years. "Yamada" is still a common family name, literally meaning 'mountain rice field'. Occasionally "Yamada" will be replaced with the name of the company who created the form, for example "Rakuten Tarō" (楽天　たろう) for forms from Rakuten.
The symbol 〇〇 (まるまる, "maru-maru", meaning 'circle-circle') is used as a general-purpose placeholder, as is "chomechome" (ちょめちょめ, 'blankety-blank' or 'blah blah blah').
Kannada.
In Kannada the placeholder name for common man / women is "Aparichita" (ಅಪರಿಚಿತ) translates to 'Unidentified', most police reports in Karnataka use this name. Ex. Aparichita Vyakti. (ಅಪರಿಚಿತ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ). Vyakti is a gender neutral way of addressing someone similar to English word 'person'. Most of the articles / reports uses gender as they describe the state of location and conditions of the persons found, followed by skin-tone, height, age, birthmarks and gender. When addressing a possible living but unknown person, "Anamika or Anamadheya" (ಅನಾಮಿಕ ಅಥವಾ ಅನಾಮಧೇಯ) meaning "nameless" are used. Shree Samanya (ಶ್ರೀ ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ) is another famous term used to refer living person in general, which translates to "respectable commoner".
Korean.
In Korean, "mwomwomwo" (뭐뭐뭐, a tripled form of 뭐, which is a short form of 무엇, the word for "what") is used in casual speech. "Nugunugu" (누구누구, reduplication of "who") and "eodieodi" (어디어디, reduplication of "where") can be heard as well.
"Hong Gildong" (홍길동), the name of a legendary Korean outlaw, is commonly used as a placeholder name in instructions for filling out forms. "Amugae" (아무개) is another placeholder name, similar to John Doe.
"Ch'ŏlsu"(철수) as a male name, and "Yŏnghŭi"(영희) as a female name is also widely used as placeholder names.
Kurdish.
In Kurdish the placeholder name for people is "Yaro", derived from the word "Yar" meaning companion, friend, lover or person.
Latin.
In Latin the word "res" (thing) is used. Some Latin legal writers used the name Numerius Negidius as a John Doe placeholder name; this name was chosen in part because it shares its initials with the Latin phrases (often abbreviated in manuscripts to "NN") "nomen nescio", "I don't know the name"; "nomen nominandum", "name to be named" (used when the name of an appointee was as yet unknown); and "non nominatus/nominata", "not named".
Formal writing in (especially older) Dutch uses almost as much Latin as the lawyer's English, and, for instance, "N.N." was and is commonly used as a "John Doe" placeholder in class schedules, grant proposals, etc.
Emperor Justinian's codification of Roman law follows the custom of using "Titius" and "Seius" as names for Roman citizens, and "Stichus" and "Pamphilus" as names for slaves.
Latvian.
Names.
In Latvian there is no universal placeholder name. Most entities tend to simply use popular real names, such as the male first name "Jānis" (John) or the common surname "Bērziņš" (Birch). As alternative "generalized" names, the male name "Pēteris" (Peter) and surname "Kalniņš" (Hill) may be used. These are quite popular Latvian names and surnames and there are quite a number of real people bearing these names and surnames. See, for instance, the disambiguation page for in the Latvian Wikipedia.).
For female first names "Grieta", "Līga" and "Maija" may be used slightly more often than others.
Places.
"Mazpisāni" is a universal placeholder for small town/village located away from civilization. As a contrast location - somewhat larger, still quite remote - "Lielpisāni" may be used. Literally these two are translated as "Smallfuck" and "Bigfuck". Also "Viķenpicka" may be used as a placeholder name for remote town. "Dievs vien zin kur" ("God only knows where") may also be used.
Lojban.
The constructed language Lojban uses the series brodV (namely broda, brode, brodi, brodo, brodu), ko'V (namely ko'a, ko'e, ko'i, ko'o, ko'u) and fo'V (namely fo'a, fo'e, fo'i, fo'o, fo'u) as assignable variables. However, Lojban speakers had begin to use as placeholder word, especially in technical discussions on the language. To distinguish both uses, some special markers were created to unambiguously differentiate them.
Lithuanian.
A universal placeholder for a person in Lithuanian are the variations of names "Jonas" (John), "Petras" (Peter) and more rarely "Antanas" (Anthony), like "Jonas Petraitis", “Jonas Jonaitis”, or “Petras Petraitis” for a full male name and "Janina Jonienė" for a full female name. The names are often used in the examples of form filling. Also, "Vardenis Pavardenis" ("Name Lastname") is a common placeholder.
A well-known derogatory placeholder name for a village or a rural town is "Bezdonys" (an actually existing village). The name literally means "Farting village" in Lithuanian, although it actually originates with nearby lake "Бездонный" (Bezdonniy), meaning "Bottomless" in Russian.
Luxembourgish.
"Hannerknapphouschend", lit. "behind the village of Knaphoscheid", is a placeholder for a place very far away in Luxembourgish.
"Mokuchsdag", lit. "the day of liquorice", is used to refer to an event that will never occur.
Macedonian.
The generic Macedonian name for an unknown person is "Петар Петровски" (Petar Petrovski).
In Macedonian "џиџе džidže" means one (usually small) object, and "џиџи-миџи džidži-midži" more than one.
Other words used are: "ваквото vakvoto", "таквото takvoto", "онаквото onakvoto" ("the like this", "the like that"), "речи-го reči-go" ("say-it"), "ова-она ova-ona" ("this and that"), and "ваму-таму vamu-tamu" ("here and there"). All above mentioned placeholders are used unofficially.
Malay.
In Malay the word "anu" which may be prefixed with "si" can be used to refer to a person whose name has eluded the speaker. It can also be used for a generic person as in "Mr/Ms So-and-so". Another not so commonly used term is "polan", also coupled with "si" in front. The term is generally regarded as older usage, and originated from the Arabic word "fulān" (فلان)"."
"Mat" or "Mamat" are also used frequently in daily slang but not in official usage.
Malayalam.
In the Malayalam language "andanum adakodanum" (അണ്ടനും അടകോടനും) is a popular phrase which refers to two generic but not so common names in Malayalam, "andan" and "adakodan". It is usually used in a slightly condescending tone and not in a positive note. It is the literal equivalent of "Tom, Dick and Harry" in English.
Maori.
In the Māori language, the word "taru", literally meaning "long grass" or "weeds" is used.
Marathi.
Generic men collectively are सोम्या-गोम्या "Somya-Gomya" (compare English "Tom, Dick and Harry").
"Aatpat Nagar" is 'Anytown'.
Moore (Burkina Faso).
"Raogo" (male) and "Poko" (female) are common place holder names used in proverbs as well as stories.
Norwegian.
In Norwegian the placeholder names for people are Ola and Kari Nordmann (male and female, respectively). A placeholder name for the ordinary Norwegian is also "Hvermannsen" ("Everymanson").
In formal legal contexts, Peder Ås (occasionally spelled "Aas") and "Kari Holm" are the generic male and female examples. These are often joined by their adversaries "Hans Tastad" (male) and "Marte Kirkerud" (female), together with various members of the extended "Ås" and "Holm" families. The first names "Marte", "Lars", and "Kari" seem to be very common in both of these families. Most of these people reside and work in the "Lillevik" ("Small Bay") area and most have accounts in "Lillevik Sparebank" ("Small Bay Savings Bank"). Some also live in the larger "Storby" ("Big City").
A placeholder name for a far away country is "Langtvekkistan" ("Far away-stan"). A placeholder name for a far away place is "Huttaheiti", which originally refers to Tahiti. "Gokk" refers to a cold and unpleasant place and is often used by people from Southern Norway about remote locations in Northern Norway. "Der pepperen gror" is a notion similar to "Gokk", and translates as "where the pepper grows".
Common words for unspecified objects include "dings", "dingseboms" and "greie" (thingy, gadget). A "duppeditt" is a small and sometimes useless object. "Snurrepipperi" (almost always plural) are similar to "duppeditt", usually something slight weird and fancy. "Krimskrams" (almost always plural), borrowed from German, is a random heap of small items.
Persian.
In Persian, for general purposes the word "Folān" or "felān" فلان (borrowed from the Arabic fulān) and "Bisār" بیسار or "Bahmān" بهمان is used. It is possible to combine the word "folān" with the word "jā" جا for the places, "kas" کس for humans and "chiz" چیز for things. For people also the word "folāni" فلانی or "taraf" طرف (both from Arabic) and in slang "yārū"يارو are used. A generic word that's used for calling anything, regardless of which type, is "chiz" چيز "thing" (from the old Persian language).
Polish.
Common nouns.
In Polish, the most popular placeholders are "to coś" (literally meaning "this something", a widget), "cudo" ("miracle"), "dynks" (from the German "Ding" – regional, specific to the region of Wielkopolska, also used in Silesia where it is spelled "dinks"), "wihajster" (from the German "Wie heißt er?" "What's its name?") and a general placeholder "ten teges" or, even more often "ten tego" (lit. "this" in nominative and genitive), which can also be used as a filled pause. There are also other terms, such as "elemelek", "pipsztok" or "psztymulec", but they are much less common. Also used are "dzyndzel" (equivalent to "dynks") and "knefel" (similar to "frob", unknown object that can be adjusted or manipulated). For a semi-jocular term equivalent to "contraption" the Russian loan word "ustrojstwo" (Russian "устройство" "arrangement, mechanism") is often employed.
Places.
In press, to avoid details, journalists use the initial letter of a given name of a town, not especially the right one, with N. as predominant. The generic name for a village or a remote small town is "Pipidówka", or its more derogatory version "Pipidówa". A vulgar, but frequently used term to describe a small and dull place is "Zadupie" (lit. "somewhere behind the arse") or "Zacipie" (lit. "somewhere behind the cunt") which is an equivalent of English "shithole". Sometimes, although rarely, "Pacanów" can also be used (almost always in a jocular sense) which has the same meaning as American English "Dullsville" but is actually a little town in central Poland.
A more picturesque description contains the common phrase "gdzie psy ogonami (dupami) szczekają", literally meaning "where dogs bark with their tails (arses)". An unspecified place situated far from the speaker is called "Za górami, za lasami" ("over the hills, over the forests"). Other terms include "Pcim Dolny" ("Lower Pcim", nonexistent quarter of a village of Pcim) and "Kozia Wólka" (lit. "Goat's Wolka", "Wola" and "Wólka" being frequent names of Polish villages). The standard place of a Polish joke is "Wąchock" – a small town in Świętokrzyskie in Eastern Poland.
The road leading to any place is sometimes called "Droga na Ostrołękę" after the popular Polish film "Rejs". Another, vulgar term is "w pizdu" (actually a Russian loan word) meaning "somewhere far away" (lit. "into the cunt"). To say that something takes place in the whole country or is simply widespread, Polish native speakers employ phrases like "Od Helu do Tatr" ("from the Hel to the Tatras"), "Od Bałtyku do Tatr" ("from the Baltic to the Tatras"), the equivalent of "Land's End to John o'Groats" or "from Orkney to Penzance" in UK English or "coast to coast" in the USA.
Persons.
A universal placeholder name for a man is "Jan Kowalski" (kowal meaning "(black)smith"); for a woman, "Janina Kowalska" is used less often, sometimes with a different first name. A second unspecified person would be called "Nowak" ("Newman"), with the choice of first name being left to the author's imagination, often also "Jan" for a man; this surname is unisex. "Jan" is the most popular male first name in Polish, and "Kowalski" and "Nowak" are the most popular Polish surnames.
Like in mathematics, the letter x ("iks") is used – an imaginary person can be called "Iksiński". Mostly in the spoken language, one can hear the fictional name "Pipsztycki" (fem. "Pipsztycka"). In logical puzzles fictitious surnames frequently follow a uniform pattern: they start with consecutive letters of Latin alphabet and are followed by an identical stem: Abacki, Babacki, Cabacki etc. for men, Abacka, Babacka, Cabacka etc. for women. In official documents however, an unidentified person's name is entered as "NN" (abbreviation of Nazwisko Nieznane" – name unknown, Nieznany Nam" - unknown to us, or "N"omen "N"escio). Informally, to describe any unknown person, the phrase "taki jeden" (lit. "such a one") is in common use.
The military slang term for an unknown person is the acronym "HGW", standing for "Chuj go wie" (lit. "a dick knows him"). Other slang terms include "koleś" (lit. "mate, pal"); "facet" or demunitive "facio" ("guy, bloke") with the feminine forms "facetka", "facia"; and "typ", "typek" (a type) with its corresponding feminine form "typiara" recently gaining wider usage. Also widespread are "gość" (lit. "guest") with its derived forms "gostek" and "gościu" and a new fashionable word "ziomal" or "ziom" (which roughly equates to the American "homie").
Date and time.
A rare placeholder name for a time and date "(jutro) w grudniu po południu" ("(tomorrow), in December, in the afternoon") is also used. To avoid giving specific time details of a past event, the phrase "pewnego razu" ("once upon a time") is quite often employed. When discussing an event which is not actually expected to occur, the phrase "na świętego Nigdy" (a play on the Polish for never, "nigdy" - in essence "St. Never's day") is sometimes uttered. An event that may (or may not) occur in a very distant unspecified future is described as "za ruski miesiąc" ("in a Russian month"); also, irregularly (or rarely) recurring events can be said to happen "raz na ruski rok" ("once a Russian year"). "Za króla Ćwieczka" ("under King Nail") refers to a very long, indefinite time ago.
Numbers.
Any number can be replaced with X. A rough number between 11 and 20 can be "naście" ("teen"); similarly "dziesiąt" ("-ty" as in "fifty") is popular for numbers between 20 and 100.
The general name for a big amount is "masa". The popular and slang expressions "od cholery i ciut ciut" ("hell of a lot") or "od groma" (lit. "from a thunder") are used, not to mention some vulgar terms like "w kurwę" (lit. "into the whore") or "od chuja" (lit. "from the cock"). For very big numbers one sometimes sees the term "pierdylion" (lit. "fartillion"/"fucktillion") or "pierdyliard".
For the approximate ending of an especially large number or an undefined decimal fraction of any number bigger than one, the expression "z hakiem" (lit. "with a hook" meaning "and something") is widespread; sometimes, not only in expressions related to money, one can say "z groszami" ("with small coins"; compare English "and change").
Verbs.
The verb "tentegować" ("ten" + "tego" + "-wać" (action postfix) = "that" + "of this" + " do") can refer to any action. Various prefixes ("roz-", "prze-", "przy-") can be used to narrow down its meaning.
Portuguese.
Things.
Common placeholders for objects in Brazilian Portuguese are "treco", "troço", "bagulho", "parada", "coisa", "trem" and "negócio", among others. In European Portuguese "coiso" (masculine of "coisa", thing, and not a real word) or "cena" are often used. In the 2000s, "coiso" ("thingy") has also been borrowed as slang into Brazilian Portuguese, mainly among the young. "Bicho" (lit. "beast") is used when the specific animal species is unknown, but also is a reference to any living thing whose name does not come to mind or is not of interest.
Persons.
Placeholder names for people are usually "Fulano" (optionally surnamed "de Tal"), "Sicrano" and "Beltrano", and the corresponding feminines ("Fulana", "Sicrana", "Beltrana"). "Não-sei-quê/quem/onde/quando/das quantas" are quite used as well. In both countries (but quite outmoded in Brazil), "João das Couves", "Zé das Couves", "José dos Anzóis" or "Zé da Silva" are also used, the feminine being "Maria" (instead of "José", which is also often abbreviated to "Zé"). "João Ninguém" or "Zé Ninguém" are used for someone who is unimportant.
"Tio" and "Tia" (uncle and aunt respectively) can be used to refer to any unspecified male or female. It is also used between friends to call each other (equivalent to "Hey, you!").
Places.
In European Portuguese, one can use the terms "Cu de Judas" (Judas' Ass) and "Cascos de Rolha" (Cork Hull) for remote, isolated and/or rural areas, as in "Lá para Cascos de Rolha" ("somewhere along Cork Hull") or "Ela vive no Cu de Judas" ("She lives in Judas' Ass"). For faraway places, the term "Cochinchina" is employed both in Brazil and Portugal, and, despite being an actual place, is used in a generic way as a placeholder for somewhere far away. In Brazilian Portuguese two similar terms for distant places are used, "Onde Judas bateu as botas" ("Where Judas died") and "Onde Judas perdeu as botas" ("Where Judas lost his boots").
Time.
Informal placeholder names for dates in Brazil are "guaraná com rolha", meaning "guaraná soft drink bottle with a cork stopper" e.g. "Em mil, novecentos e guaraná com rolha" is an indicative of something which took place many times ago, or also simply "nos tempos do onça", "in the times of the pound-mass" (generally used to mean something even older than the usual for "guaraná com rolha", which is usually placed in the 20th century). One can also use "Em mil novecentos e bolinha", roughly translating as "In nineteen-pellets". In Portugal, the expression "troca o passo", meaning "exchange step" e.g. "Em mil novecentos e troca o passo" is used in a same way.
Numbers.
"Tal" and "poucos" when used with another word means "something". For example, "trinta e tal euros" means "thirty-something euros", while "trinta e poucos reais" means "thirty-something reais". It can also be used for years: "Em mil novecentos e oitenta e tal" means "In nineteen-eighty-something". Another form is "tantos", such as "trinta e tantos anos" meaning "thirty-something" referring to years of age or an uncertain period of years.
Another informal Brazilian placeholder name for numbers, particularly those considered big, either as superlative or in quantities really grueling to count manually, is "trocentos" e.g. "Aquela patricinha, ela tem não imagino quantos trocentos sapatos e vestidos", which roughly translates as "That clueless wealthy girl, I can not imagine how many "trocentos" of shoes and dresses she owns". "Trocentos" is a jocular way of saying "trezentos" (three hundred).
Actions.
The verb "coisar" (formed by a derivation of "coisa", "thing") is often used to replace any verb that expresses actions.
Quechua.
In Quechua, there is a noun radical "na" ("whatever") to which verbal ("nay = to do whatever"), agentive ("naq = the doer of whatever"), or affective ("nacha = cute little thing") suffixes may be added.
Romanian.
In Romanian,
Other expressions used include
Placeholders for numbers include "zeci de mii" ("tens of thousands"), often contracted to "j'de mii" (or even "țâșpe mii"; from "-șpe", an informal numeral suffix equivalent to "-teen" in "sixteen", attached to "ț", a Romanian letter sometimes seen as "extra", analogue to the English "a zillion") and also "mii şi mii" ("thousands and thousands"). Diverse colloquial formulas for "a lot" exist, including "o căruță" (lit. "a cart-full"), "o grămadă" (lit. "a pile"), "căcălău" (vulgar; it doesn't mean anything other than "(really) lots of (smth.)"; it sounds both scatological and augumentative in Romanian; comparable with "shit-load") or the poetic "câtă frunză, câtă iarbă" (lit. "as many leaves and blades of grass", referring to a large number of people).
"Cucuieţii-din-Deal" is a name for obscure and remote places. "La mama dracului" or "la mama naibii" ("where the devil's mother dwells", lit. "at the devil's mother"), "Unde şi-a-nțărcat dracu' copiii" (where the devil weaned his children) also mean a very remote place. For the same purpose, Romanians use also "La Cuca Măcăii" (an actual remote village in central Romania) and "La dracu' in praznic" (at the devil's celebration). Other place names may be used as generic placeholders, depending on the speaker's origins.
"La paștele cailor" (when horses will celebrate Easter—specifically when Orthodox Easter, Catholic Easter and Jewish Passover take place on the same day), "Când o face plopu' pere" (when pears will grow in a poplar), "Când o zbura porcu' " (when pigs will fly) and "La Sfântul Așteaptă" (on Saint Wait's day) both mean "some day in the indefinite future, or quite likely never".
Russian.
An large number of placeholder words for people, things, and actions are derived from Russian profanity ("mat"), as may be found in multiple dictionaries of Russian slang.
Things.
In Russian, among the common placeholder names are "это самое" ("this particular [object]"), "штука" ("thing;" diminutive forms also exist), "ботва" ("leafy tops of root vegetables"), "фигня" (crud), "хреновина" (same meaning as the previous one, but slightly less offensive, related to horseradish sauce).
A term for something awkward, bulky and useless is "бандура" ("bandura", an old Ukrainian musical instrument, big and inconvenient to carry). A placeholder for a monetary unit is "тугрик" ("Tögrög", the monetary unit of Mongolia).
Persons.
In Russian, there's a special placeholder personal name "имярек" (from Church Slavonic expression "Imya Rek" meaning "having said a name") which is used (sometimes ironically) to a person whose real name is unknown.
Placeholders for personal names include variations on names Иван (Ivan), Пётр (Pyotr/Peter), and Сидор (Sidor), such as "Иван Петрович Сидоров" (Ivan Petrovich Sidorov) for a full name, or "Иванов" (Ivanov) for a last name; deliberately fake name-patronymic-surname combinations use one of them for all three, with the most widely used being "Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov". "Василий Пупкин" (Vasiliy Pupkin) is also (jokingly, because the family name resembles the Russian word for navel, "пупок" (pupok)) used as a generic name.
Words like "парень" (guy), "товарищ" (comrade), "бродяга" (wanderer or rather bum), "трудяга" (working man), "чувак" (dude), "друг"/"подруга" (friend masc./fem.), "молодой человек" (young man), "девушка" (young woman), "гражданин" (citizen), "уважаемый" (respected one), "дорогой" (dear) all have their own meaning but may be and are used as second-person placeholders as well. "Уважаемый" is most commonly used by migrant workers from southern FSU countries addressing Russians.
"Седьмая вода на киселе" ("sed'maya voda na kisele", seventh water on kissel) denotes very far relatives.
"Dzhamshut" is a derogative placeholder for a gastarbeiter from southern FSU countries.
Slovak.
In Slovak, the most common placeholders are "oné" (originally an indefinite pronoun) with its variations like "oný" and "onô" or "tento" (originally a definite pronoun, lit. "this one") with variations like "hento" and "tamto" which can be used for both things and people.
Things.
There are numerous expressions meaning "bullshit", that can be interchangeably used as placeholder names for things – these can be either colloquial, derived from names of farm animals ("konina", "kravina", "volovina", "somarina" - derived from horse, cow, ox, donkey respectively), or obscene, derived from obscene names for genitalia ("kokotina", "chujovina", "pičovina" - derived from cock, cock, cunt respectively). "Dzindzík" and "čudlík" are used as a placeholder for (control) elements of various devices. It is often used interchangeably with "bazmek" (derived from Hungarian "baszd meg" meaning 'fuck it') which can also be used to refer to entire devices or machines.
Persons.
The most common placeholder for a full personal name is "Jožko Mrkvička" (lit. "Joe Little Carrot"). The most common placeholder name for an unknown man is "týpek" (borrowed from Czech), meaning "dude". This term is used mostly by young people. "Ujo" (uncle) and "teta" (aunt) are also commonly used to address unknown adults, mainly by children.
Places.
The standard placeholder for a place name is "Horná Dolná" (lit. "Upper Lower", a reference to a common type of village name which takes the form of a feminine adjective ending in "-á", e.g. Terchová, Horná Lehota). It is often used in derogatory fashion to indicate a tiny and remote village (compare US English Hicksville). Remote places can be denoted as "Tramtária", or "v riti" (in an asshole). For remote and rural places there are also the terms "kde líšky dávajú dobrú noc" ("where foxes say good night"), "na konci sveta" ("at the end of the world") or "zapadákov" or "Vyšná Diera pod Sráčom". In fairy tales, "za siedmimi horami" ("over the seven mountains") is commonly used.
Time.
When referring to times long gone, "keď sa voda sypala a piesok lial" ("when water crumbled and sand flowed") is sometimes used, generally in fairy tales. "Predpotopný" ("from before the Flood") is used as an adjective for ancient or obsolete things or concepts. Time that is never to come is expressed as "na svätého Dindy" ("on St. Dindy's day"), because there is no such saint as Dindy (in fact, Dindy isn't a name at all, it just rhymes with "nikdy", "never"). The expression "keď naprší a uschne" ("after it rains and dries out") is used for the same purpose.
When talking about amounts, "X" is often used (e.g. "žijem tu už X rokov" - "I've been living here for X years").
Food.
"Hovno s makom a pretlakom" ("shit with poppy seeds and ketchup") and "obzerance s makom" ("gape-food with poppy seeds") or "obzerance s čakancami" (gape-food with wait-food) is a placeholder name for food, generally used after someone asks what food is going to be eaten. By extension, the term can also mean "nothing".
Slovene.
In Slovenia the name Janez Novak is used in place of John Doe, for legal matters. Janez Kranjski is also commonly used. American express advertisements use the name Rok Bergant.
For any remoted place, Spodnji Duplek is often used.
To say something will never happen, "Ob svetem Nikoli" ("on St Never's Day") is used.
Somali.
Persons.
In Somali, "Hebel" (male) and "Hebla" (female) are placeholder names given to persons not mentioned by name directly. Depending on tone and context "Hebel Hebel" can be describing an individual with a place holder first name, last name or two separate people.
Spanish (Europe).
Things.
"Cacharro" is generally used for objects and/or devices around the kitchen. "Chisme" can be used for any object whose name is unknown or doesn't come to mind, much like English "thingy".
"Bicho" (from Latin "bestius ~ bestia"), a pejorative term, is used for an animal of unknown species; in Puerto Rico it also means 'penis'.
Persons.
Placeholder names in the Spanish language might have a pejorative or derogatory feeling to them, depending on the context.
When several placeholders are needed together, they are used in the above order, e.g. "Fulano, Mengano y Zutano". All placeholder words are also used frequently in diminutive form, "Fulanito/a", "Menganito/a", "Perenganito/a" or "Zutanito/a".
The words "tío" and "tía" (Uncle and Aunt respectively) can be used to refer to any unspecified male or female. It is also used between friends to call each other (equivalent to "dude").
Numbers.
"Tropecientos" ("trope hundred"), "veinticatorce" ("twenty-fourteen"), "chorrocientos" or "chorromil" are colloquially used for big numbers. "Pico" or "algo" can be added with the meaning of "a little more", e.g. for time ("las cuatro y pico" or "las cuatro y algo" for an undefined time between 4:00 and 5:00) or "las cuatro pasadas" (lit. Past 4pm/am) which means that its later than 4, but not 4:05,or added fractions ("quince euros y pico" or "quince euros y algo" for "fifteen euros and a little more"). For approximation "tantos/tantas" can be used as in "treinta y tantos" for thirtysomething (age) or "thirty and a few more".
Spanish (Latin America).
"Feria", thus turning "thirty and change" into "treinta y feria" is used in Mexican Spanish.
"Carajo" is commonly used only among Central and South American Spanish speakers when referring to an unknown and/or unpleasant place, hence "vete pa'l carajo" (go to el carajo) may translate as "go to hell" or "get lost".
Mexican Spanish speakers use the words "chingadera" ("fuckery") or "madre" (lit. mother), not to be used in polite circumstances, also "mierda" which in most contexts has the same function as the word 'shit' in English, as does "güey" (from buey) used between young people to refer each other. "Cabrón" is used to name someone you don't know or remember, but is mildly offensive, depending of the context, because it means cuckold. It is considered an insult in Spain, in this same country, "Cabrón" means "big goat", (From cabra, adding -on, with is an augmentative suffix) but its usually used as an insult
In Chilean and Peruvian Spanish the word "hue'ón(a)" (from "huevón", from "huevo" ("egg"), a euphemism for testicle) is often used when referring to unspecified individuals or friends in a casual context. Also, "huevón" is considered an insult when used unproperly. The word "hue'á" (from "huevada") is used to refer to unspecified actions or objects.
"Vaina" is word commonly used by Dominicans and Venezuelans to refer to any object; its usage is similar to "thingy" or "stuff". It can be a very crude word elsewhere in the Caribbean.
People.
"Juan Pérez" (or its diminutive, "Juanito Pérez") is common in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.
In Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela, a generic person is "Fulano"; a second generic person is "Mengano"; and a third generic person is "Zutano".
In Cuban Spanish, "Fulano" and "Mengano" are followed by "Ciclano", then "Esperancejo", when more than two placeholder names are needed. The corresponding surname is "de Tal" ("of such"). "Pepito Pérez" is sometimes used as a generic name but carries a more dismissive connotation, akin to "Joe Blow", and is never used as a placeholder for a real person.
Places.
In Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia, "Cochinchina" (an old name for southern Vietnam; see Cochinchina campaign) means a remote and perhaps nonexistent place. Combined with "China" it means 'everywhere' in the phrase "aquí, en la China, y en la Cochinchina".
In Chile, "Chuchunco" is used for a remote place.
Central America.
In parts of Central America (e.g. El Salvador and Costa Rica) the word "chunche" is used for any object. El Salvador also uses the word "volado" (from "volar", to fly) to refer to objects.
Argentinian Spanish.
Things.
"Coso" or its diminutive "cosito" (thing) is used for a generic physical object, usually replacing a noun when the speaker does not remember its name (i.e. "Pasame el coso ese que está en la mesa", "Hand me that thing on the table"). Also "chirimbolo" (trinket, tchotchke), "pendorcho" (small object). "Comosellame" (what's-it-called) is also used.
"Chucherías": cheap bric-a-brac or jewellery.
"Bicho": any animal colloquially.
Numbers.
"A las mil quinientas" ('at 1500'): very late.
"Cuarenta y quince" ('forty-fifteen'): jocularly, an indeterminate number.
"Quichicientos": a lot, a zillion.
Places.
"La loma de los tomates/del orto/ de la mierda/del carajo" ('tomato/ass/shit/fuck hill') is a vulgar phrase for a very remote place.
"La concha de la lora" ("the parrot's cunt"): an unspecified, possibly remote place, usually used in the insult "Go to ...". A euphemism is "Plumas verdes" (green feathers).
"Donde el diablo perdió el poncho" ('where the devil lost his poncho'): in a remote place, at the back of beyond.
Time.
"Cuando los chanchos vuelen": literally, when pigs fly.
"Añares": donkey's years.
"El día del arquero": goalkeeper's day (never).
Ecuadorian Spanish.
Things.
A generic or poorly identified thing can be "cosa", "nota", "movida" or vulgarly "huevada".
People.
"Juan Pérez" or "Juan Piguave" (Pérez and Piguave being common surnames, like Smith). N.N. is used when trying to convey the same notion of forensic non-identification that John Doe conveys in the U.S.
For small children or young people, Ecuadorians normally use to call children "pelao/á" (a more vague form of the also used "pelado").
"Maricón" (faggot) is used to call the attention of someone you know, but it can also be used in a derogatory tone. Compare "broder" (from English "brother"), "ñaño" (also meaning 'brother'), "pana" (pal), "yunta" (good friend), and "projeshor" (a corruption of the word "profesor", meaning "teacher", used exclusively in the coastal provinces of Ecuador). They all are variations on the "dude" theme.
"Jefe" ('boss') is also popular when addressing an unknown middle-aged man.
For respected elders, "caballero", "señora" or "señorita" can be used without a name.
Places.
"La casa de la verga": (Lit. "The house of the cock"), sometimes used like "Cochinchina", "ándate à la casa de la verga" is an insult, while "me fui à la casa de la verga" colloquially means "I was wasted or otherwise ruined".
Colombian Spanish.
Things.
For a generic thing "vaina" is used for things not well known, but it indicates anger or loss of temper. "Comosellame" ('what's it called') is also used.
People.
"Juan Pérez" is the generic man, "Pérez" being a common surname.
Colombians call small children "chino/a" ("Chinese"), "pelao/á" (a more vague form of the also used "pelado"), "sardino/a" (sardine, i.e. little fish).
"Juanito" (Johnny) is a small boy of school age; in jokes, Juanito is often the smart-mouth kid who is the center of the joke. "Pepito/a" (little dot) is also often used in the context of jokes.
"Marica" (faggot) is a placeholder name popular in the Caribbean Region, although it is derogatory. "Marica" is often used in the north and not as an insult, but more in the context 'dude' would be used, and people do not respond angrily at this, as is believed that if you do get mad, is because you are in fact gay.
For respected elders, "Don" or "Doña" can be used without a name; "sumercé" is used similarly.
Places.
"La loma de la mierda" ("shit hill") is a vulgar name in Argentina for a very remote place; similarly "La loma del orto" ("anus hill").
Sri Lanka.
People.
In Sinhala, a very common informal placeholder name for male is Siripala (සිරිපාල) and for female Champa (චම්පා).
Swati.
People.
In Swati, a common informal placeholder for a name is similar to the English .
Swedish.
Things.
Swedish has a large vocabulary of placeholders: "Sak", "grej", "pryl", "mojäng"/"moj" (from French "moyen") and "grunka" are neutral words for thing. Some plural nouns are "grejsimojs", "grunkimojs", "grejs" and "tjofräs", which correspond to thingamabob, and the youth loan word "stuff", which is pronounced with the Swedish u. "Apparat" (or, more slangy, "mackapär") more specifically refers to a complex appliance of some kind, much like the German "Gerät". More familiarly or when openly expressing low interest, people use "tjafs" or "trams" (drivel) and "skräp" or "krams" (rubbish). Like in English, various words for feces can be used: "skit" (crap) and "bajs" (poop) are standard, well known local variations are "mög", "bös" and "dret". "Vadhannuhette" and "vaddetnuhette" correspond to "whatshisname" and "whatchamacallit" respectively, except that Swedes use the past tense. "Det där du vet" means "that thing you know". "Den och den" (that and that) corresponds to "so and so". "Gunk" may refer to any fairly large quantity of unwanted substance or objects of varied or indeterminate identity, much like the English "junk".
Persons.
The closest Swedish equivalent of John Doe in Swedish is the formal "N.N." (Latin "nomen nescio", "name unknown").
Common first names infrequently used as placeholders are "Kalle" for boys and "Lisa" for girls, "Anna" and "Maria" for women, "Johan" and "Anders" for men.
More in use is the equivalent of the collective term Average Joe: "Medelsvensson". "Medel" is Swedish for 'medium' or 'average', and Svensson is a common Swedish surname.
Swedish journalists also have an equivalent for John Doe when referring to the average reader: "Nisse i Hökarängen."
In more formal text the abbreviation "N.N." (for Latin "nomen nescio", "name unknown") is sometimes used.
Places.
Placeholder names in Swedish are colorful: Someplace far away can be called "Tjotaheiti" (which is derived from "Otaheiti", an older, alternate nameform of Tahiti) or "Långtbortistan" (Farawaystan) a play on -stan created in the Swedish edition of Donald Duck.
Numbers.
A common term for any large or unknown number is "femtioelva" (fifty-eleven).
Tagalog.
General.
In Tagalog " 'yung anó" ("that thing") or "anó" is used for an object, time, place, or person forgotten or deliberately not mentioned by the speaker. The Cebuano loanword "kuán"/"kuwán" may also be used.
Specific.
"Juan dela Cruz", or simply "Juan", is both a national personification as well as representative of the Filipino everyman whose name as is used as a placeholder name. The negative "Hudas" is a more colloquial term for people the speaker considers to be a malefactor or treacherous. "Si anò" (personal singular case marker + "what") or "Si ganoón" (personal singular case marker + "that") are also used for people whose names are temporarily forgotten the speaker.
As in referring to objects, the Cebuano word "kuwán" may also be used.
As to time, "kopong-kopong" and "nineteen-forgotten” are playfully derisive terms for anything whose exact year of origin is forgotten, similar to the more "ancient" "panahón (bago) ng mga Hapón" ("time (before) the Japanese") and the even older "Panahón pa ni Matusalém/Mahoma" ("the time of Methuselah/[Prophet] Muhammad)". "Siyám-siyám" (literally "nine-nine") is derisively used for the unknown end of a particularly long time period spent doing something, e.g., "Áabutin ka ng siyám-siyám sa pagkakupad mong iyán!" ("It will take you ages at that pace you're going!").
Thai.
People.
A popular placeholder name for an unspecified male in Thailand is "Somchai" (สมชาย) literally meaning "manly". Sometimes, a placeholder name of "Somsri, (สมศรี)" for female, is used.
"Nai Kor" (นาย ก.) - meaning “Mr. A. “, is also used as a masculine placeholder. (ก. is the first letter of the Thai alphabets.) "Nai Khor" (นาย ข.) and successive letters (ค ง จ etc.) can also be used when there is more than one person to refer to. For feminine placeholder, "Nang" (นาง) or "Nangsao" (นางสาว) is used instead of Nai.
Time.
กาลครั้งหนึ่งนานมาแล้ว (Kala khrang nueng naan maa laew) is a popular temporal placeholder for a long time ago. It is used almost identically to "Once upon a time" in English.
Turkish.
Turkish has many colorful placeholders. "Falan" seems to be borrowed from Arabic, and comes in variations like "filanca" (what's his name) and "falan filan" (stuff, etc.). "Ivır zıvır" is a common placeholder for "various stuff". Placeholders for persons exist in abundance, one example being "Sarı Çizmeli Mehmet Ağa" ("Mehmet Ağa with yellow boots") which generally is used to mean pejoratively "unknown person". In addition, otherwise meaningless words such as "zımbırtı" and "zamazingo" are used similarly to the English words "gadget" and "gizmo", but not necessarily related to technology.
"Şey" meaning "thing" is used colloquially for an object or an action the person has that second forgotten. "O şey dedi..." (literally "He said 'thing'...") can be used instead of "He said that...". It can also be used as a euphemism in place of a verb; "Şey yapmak istemedim" ("I didn't want to 'thing'") can mean "I didn't want to make an issue out of it."
Vietnamese.
In Vietnamese, "Nguyễn Văn A" and "Trần Thị B" are usually used as placeholder names for a male and female, respectively, due to the ubiquity of the family names Nguyễn and Trần and middle names Văn and Thị in Vietnamese.
Welsh.
Welsh uses "betingalw" (or the respectful "bechingalw"), literally "what you call", meaning "whatchamacallit".
Ubykh.
One of the placeholders in Ubykh, zamsjada, may be related to another word meaning "useless".
Uzbek.
In Uzbek language, among the common placeholders are "anaqa" ('that, those'), "falon", "piston" ('stuff'). Placeholder personal names include "falonchi", "pistonchi" ('person who makes stuff') and the Uzbek names "Eshmat" and "Toshmat". Placeholders for places are "tupkaning tagi" (very far away), "katta xolasining uyi" ('elder aunt's house').
Yiddish.
In Yiddish, "der zach" is often used, similar to the German "die Sache" above. Stand-up comic David Steinberg did a routine about his attempt to identify an object, based only on his father's description of it as "In Yiddish, we used to call it "der zach"."
The Talmudic placeholder names "Ploni" and "Almoni" (see under Hebrew) are also used; more specifically Yiddish placeholder names are "Chaim Yankel" (Yankel is the Yiddish diminutive of Jacob/Yaaqov) and "Moishe Zugmir" (literally: Moses Tell-Me).
A Yiddish term for a backwater location is "Yechupitz". "Hotzeplotz" is used for a location very far away.
Yoruba.
In Yoruba, Lagbaja and Temedu are the most common placeholder names.


Amy Ellingson

Amy Ellingson is an American contemporary abstract painter. She lives and works in San Francisco.
Career.
Ellingson received a BA in Studio Art from Scripps College and an MFA from CalArts. She is the recipient of the Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship and the Artadia Grant to Individual Artists and has been awarded fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. She taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 2000-2011, attaining the rank of Associate Professor. Since 2011, she has served on the Board of Directors at Root Division, a visual arts non-profit in San Francisco.
Her work has been shown throughout the United States and in Tokyo and is held in various public and corporate collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Crocker Art Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum of California, the Berkeley Art Museum and the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. Her 2015 public commission, "Untitled (Large Variation") is an 1100 square foot mural on view in Terminal 3 at the San Francisco International Airport.


Igisoro

Igisoro is a two-player game of the mancala family. It is a variant of the Omweso game of the Baganda people (Uganda), and it is played primarily in Burundi and Rwanda. Igisoro, like Omweso and other mancalas from Eastern Africa such as Bao, is played with a 4×8 board of pits and 64 seeds. A player's territory is the two rows of pits closest to them.
Start.
The starting position is shown below; Each player starts with 4 seeds in each pit in the back row of their territory.
However, any or both players may decide to start by seeds in fore row, or some seeds in fore and other in back row depending on the wish
of the player.
Turns.
On his turn, a player chooses a pit containing seeds in their territory and sows them placing one seed in each pit as s/he moves counter-clockwise around his territory. The board below shows the state after the first player chose to move the seeds from the pit highlighted in yellow.
At the end of a turn, there are two ways in which the players turn may continue:
Only for a direct pick or catch, a player starting from, or arriving at the pits highlighted in yellow below may choose to move counter-clockwise. When s/he starts from any other pit, s/he may only move counter-clockwise.
Completion.
The game is over and a player has lost when he or she can not sow any of his or her seeds.


YMD (date)


John Ferren

John Millard Ferren (1905 – 1970) was an American artist and educator. He was active from 1920 until 1970 in San Francisco, Paris and New York City.
Early life.
John Ferren was born in Pendleton, Oregon on October 17, 1905, on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. His parents were Verna Zay (née Westfall) and James William Ferren, his father served in the Army and the family moved often. In 1911, the family settled down in San Francisco, California.
In 1925, he briefly attended the California School of Fine Arts (now known as San Francisco Art Institute). In his 20s, he apprenticed as a stonecutter in San Francisco and producing portrait busts.
Career.
Paris.
In 1929, he traveled to New York City and Paris. While in Paris, Ferren attended classes at the Sorbonne, Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and Académie Ranson. Although for the most part not formally educated, preferring to develop his art through an adventurous life style, and interaction with other artists, he was known as an intellectual among his peers. He wrote many published articles on abstract art and art theory. His writing and artwork appears in three issues of the influential magazine; "It is. A Magazine for Abstract Art" (1958-1965). While in Paris, Ferren was part of the community of artists working in Europe in the 1920s and 30s, including Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Hans Hofmann, Joaquín Torres-García, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Piet Mondrian, and Pablo Picasso. He became friendly with Picasso, who mentored him, and together they stretched the canvas for "Guernica", in 1937. He briefly returned to the United States in 1930, returning to Paris soon after, where he remained until 1938. He was liked to the group Abstraction-Création. He was the only artist who was both an inner-circle member of the Parisian avant garde of the 1930s, and the New York School abstract expressionists of the 1940s and 1950s.
He worked at Atelier 17 with Stanley William Hayter, and learned about a nineteenth-century printing technique, the engraving plate is imprinted in wet plaster, and when dried, is then carved and painted.
New York.
In 1938, he moved to New York City. He was a founding member (and later president) of "The Club", a group of artists who were at the heart of the emerging "New York School" of abstract expressionism. He befriended Yun Gee, and through Gee, he became interested Taoism and Zen Buddhism.
He taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, starting in 1946. Additionally he taught at Cooper Union (1946), Queens College (1952–1970), ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, California, and the University of California, Los Angeles. During this time, he lived in a home and summer studio he designed and built in Brentwood, California.
In the 1950s, Ferren collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock. In the 1955 film "The Trouble With Harry", the artworks of main character Sam Marlowe were painted by Ferren. In the 1958 film "Vertigo", Ferren created the Jimmy Stewart nightmare sequence as well as the haunting, "Portrait of Carlotta".
Beirut.
Ferren was selected as the first US State Department's Artist in Residence, and spent one year ('63–'64) residing in Beirut, Lebanon with his family. They lived on the second floor of the famous Beirut landmark building The Pink House (sometimes Rose House) which also served as his studio. While lin the middle east he had several exhibitions, including at the American University of Beirut, and travel throughout the region giving lectures on his work, and American Abstract Expressionism. His presence there was captured in an art project by painter Tom Young, in 2014–2015.
East Hampton.
Ferren, along with friend and fellow painter Willem de Kooning, purchased adjacent land and a house, to which he added a studio, from sculptor Wilfred Zogbaum in 1959. A few years after returning from Beirut, the Ferren's moved from New York City to live and paint full-time in East Hampton, however he also maintained a studio in New York at 147 Spring Street (sharing the building with Robert Wilson's "Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds"), as he was simultaneously a professor teaching color and painting, and serving as chairman of the art department for CUNY, Queens College. This was a very prolific period for them both, and the Ferren's remained active members of the East Hampton artist community, for the remainder of their lives. Both of their works can be seen as prominent parts of the Guild Hall Museum permanent collection.[37]
Personal life.
His first marriage was in 1932 to Laure Ferren (née Ortiz de Zarate), the daughter of Manuel Ortiz de Zarate, and ended in divorce by 1938. His second marriage was in 1941, to Inez Ferren (née Chatfield), and ended in divorce by 1948.
While teaching at Brooklyn Museum Art School, he met Rae Tonkel, one of his students and an Impressionist painter. Ferren married Rae Ferren (née Tonkel) in 1949, when she was age 20 and he was age 44. Rae Ferren died on September 6, 2016. Their son, Bran Ferren, is a noted designer, technologist, inventor, and businessman.
Death.
Ferren died of cancer at the Southhampton Hospital in Southampton, New York in 1970. He is buried at Green River Cemetery in East Hampton, New York.
Museum permanent collections.
His work is in various public museum collections including:
Exhibitions.
A list of select exhibitions by John Ferren.


Chikara Akutsu

 is a Japanese professional shogi player ranked 8-dan.
Promotion history.
The promotion history for Akutsu is as follows:
Titles and other championships.
Although Akutsu has yet to appear in a major title match, he has won two non-major-title championships during his career: the (2008) and the (2009).
Awards and honors.
Akutsu received the Japan Shogi Association Annual Shogi Awards for "Best New Player" in 2004, "Best Winning Percentage" in 2006, and "Most Consecutive Games Won" award in 2009.
Year-end prize money and game fee ranking.
Akutsu has finished in the "Top 10" of the JSA's only once during his career. He earned a total of JPY 25,700,000 to rank ninth in 2009.


Charles Gibbons (artist)

Charles Gibbons (born June 1, 1957) is a Canadian abstract artist.
Life.
Gibbons was born in Montreal, Quebec and studied architecture, arts, and environmental psychology. He worked as an architect for several years, including apprenticing with Arthur Erickson Architects.
Initially he was influenced by the works of geometric abstractionists such as Sol LeWitt, Kenneth Noland, and Frank Stella. His first exhibition was in Calgary, Alberta featuring his geometric abstractions, while studying Environmental Psychology in the early 1980s. In the mid-1980s while working for Arthur Erickson he was influenced by abstract expressionists such as Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Sam Francis.
His current works are generally characterized as meaningful abstraction with bold contrasting colours. His works have been shown at the Toronto International Art Fair, Fort Myers Alliance for the Arts, Singapore International Contemporary Art Fair, and the Huitai National Art Center in China. He is represented in art collections in Canada, the United States, Japan, China, and Singapore.
References.
Publications
Articles
Television


Villu Toots

Villu Toots (August 24, 1916 – April 10, 1993) was an internationally known Estonian calligrapher, book designer, educator, palaeograph and author.
Biography.
Early life.
Villu Toots was born on August 24, 1916 in Reval, Russian Empire (now Tallinn, Estonia). He was the first child of Karl Johannes and Amalie Toots ("née" Jaas). The family was originally from Tartu and moved back home, when Toots was one and a half years old. His father was a shoemaker and his mother was a housewife, but earned money as a seamstress.
Toots started school at Tartu Commercial School. Luckily for him, the curriculum also included penmanship. There Toots gained his first knowledge about formal and casual scripts from artist Eduard Ahas. He also got advice from Hando Mugasto, who was an artist from the prestigious Pallas Art School. By his senior year in 1934 Toots had started making posters for the school and for others.
Career beginnings.
Right after high school the professional career of Villu Toots had begun. He started as an artist for local cinemas in Tartu. He managed to work for five different establishments: Capitol, Heli, Apollo, Central and Metropol. With the help of his personal assistant he created posters, newspaper ads and visuals for intermissions. Simultaneously he was doing designs for other companies, exhibitions and display windows. He spent the hard-earned money on field trips to European art centers at the time: France, Austria, Hungary, Germany and Poland.
Toots' atelier was located in cinema Apollo, that was close to Pallas Art School. Joining the academy had been a dream of his until September 1937, when he started his studies there.
Studies in Pallas.
Toots had a unique opportunity to study with and from some of the greats of Estonian fine art. He practiced printmaking under the guidance of Arkadio Laigo and Roman Vaher. R. Vaher had studied in Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig. He established a close connection with Toots, as he was also interested in calligraphy. Toots' teachers also included Aleksander Vardi and Kaarel Liimand. Toots left Pallas before graduating in 1939.
Moving to Tallinn.
During the last year of World War II in 1945 Villu Toots moved to Tallinn to focus more on book design. The best printing house in Tartu had been destroyed by the war, therefore publishing had been moved to the capital. For seven years Toots worked as an art director in two publishing houses. There he learned more about different printing methods and book architecture, but also about the restrictions of the soviet regime. For two years he was the leading designer of "Eesti Naine" (Estonian Woman) magazine. From 1952 until his death, Toots worked as a freelance artist. The only exception was in 1965–1966, when he worked as an art director in the National Committee of Cinematography.
Calligraphy School.
Since 1946 Villu Toots had been teaching calligraphy in different seminars. Calligraphy had suddenly become more popular and there was a need for a thorough form of study. Also the Tallinn State Applied Art Institute of the ESSR could not fulfil the demand for artistic writing. In 1965 Toots established a calligraphy school named "Kirjakunsti Kool" with a three-year course. Students came from all over Estonia and applications were sent from far ends of the Soviet Union. Toots was the initiator, the head and only teacher in the one-man school. Studies took place in the evenings.
In 1986 Toots gave his position to Heino Kivihall – one of his best students. As of 2015 Heino Kivihall is still teaching calligraphy in the same institution also in the Tallinn School of Calligraphy. Other well-known students of "Kirjakunsti Kool" also include Villu Järmut, Ilmar Vallikivi, Henno Käo, Emil Lausmäe, Rein Maantoa, Arvo Pärenson, Ain Kaasik and many others.
Publications.
One of his greatest contributions to the Estonian culture are his books on calligraphy and type design, that also give insight to the history of writing, different scripts and typefaces. His book ""Tänapäeva kiri" (1956) was adapted and remade for Latvian readers as "300 burtu veidi. 300 шрифтов" (1960) and for Russians as "Cовременный шрифт" (1966). He has also published collections of his best calligraphy works. American calligraphy magazine Scribe dedicated their issue of winter 1978 and spring 1979 to the works of Villu Toots.
Books
Collections of calligraphical works
Distant acquaintances.
Despite living behind the Iron Curtain Villu Toots was able to keep in touch with notable people all over the world. He had connections in almost 30 different countries, including Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Iceland and Japan.
First distant acquaintances were colleagues from Moscow: Solomon Telingater, Vadim Lazurski, Pavel Kuzanyan and Maxim Shukow. Contacting outside of the Soviet Union started in 1954 with a calligrapher from Bruges, Jef Boudens, who was seeking help for writing books. German typographer Albert Kapr turned to Toots with a similar request. Through Kapr Toots became friends with Hermann Zapf, one of the leading typographers in the world. Villu Toots also kept friendly ties with Donald Jackson, official scribe and calligrapher to the Crown Office of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Personal.
Villu Toots married Ann Leesalu on January 18, 1941. They have a daughter Tiiu Sarv. In 1991 the couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Villu Toots died on April 10, 1993. He is buried at Tallinn's Metsakalmistu cemetery.