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Placeholder name
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Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either irrelevant or unknown in the context in which it is being discussed. "Whatchamacallit" (for objects) and "Whatshisname" or "Whatshername" (for men and women, respectively) are defining examples.
Linguistic role
These placeholders typically function grammatically as nouns and can be used for people (e.g., John Doe, Jane Doe), objects (e.g., Widget) or places (e.g., Timbuktu). They share a property with pronouns, because their referents must be supplied by context.
Many placeholder names are synecdoches, that is, linguistic metaphors, where a part of something is used for the whole or vice versa. "Average Joe" is an example of this, as not all men are named Joe. Other placeholder names, such as "MacGuffin", "whatchamacallit" or "thingamajig", have no identity beyond their use, as placeholder names and so are not synecdoches.
Stuart Berg Flexner and Harold Wentworth’s Dictionary of American Slang (1960), uses the term kadigan to describe placeholder words. They define kadigan merely as a synonym for thingamajig; if so, then kadigan is itself a kadigan. The term may have originated with Willard R. Espy, though others such as David Annis, also used it (or cadigans) in their writing. Its etymology is obscure—Flexner and Wentworth related it to the generic word gin for engine (as in the cotton gin). It may also relate to the Irish surname Cadigan. Words describing generic categories may also be used, in this function of a placeholder (e.g., "flower" for tulips and roses), but they are not considered to be cadigans.
Connotation
Especially when used to refer to people, some placeholder names can have a negative connotation.
Abbreviations used in this article
- s. = sense; thus s.2 means "sense 2" of a dictionary entry
Placeholder names in English
Things (inanimate objects or concepts)
Common placeholders in the English language include:
- blah
- compuftimacator (to describe a contraption, especially mechanical)
- crap
- da kine (Hawaiian Pidgin, universal placeholder)
- dealie, dealy, deeley, or deelie (northwestern U.S)
- dingle-dongle
- dingus
- diseere
- doobrie or doobry (British)
- doodacky
- doohickey
- do-dad, doodad (North America) and doodah (UK)
- doofer
- doomaflidgy (Kentucky, Tennesse)
- flask or frasc (Connecticut, U.S.A.; frasc is derived from the Spanish term "frasco", which is Spanish for flask)
- flippidy-doo
- Foo or Foobar (Used primarily in the computer industry)
- framistat
- frammis
- frobnitz
- gadget
- geemie
- gewgaw or geegaw
- gizmo
- gubbins (British slang)
- hickey
- hingmy (Scottish, derived from thingummy)
- hodad
- hoobie-doobie
- hoozit
- jew-jaw or jew-tart
- jobby or jobber
- jones
- junk
- kajigger
- kludge
- MacGuffin (in fiction, any object of superficial importance)
- madoober or madinglehopper
- plums, bells, grapes (from fruit machine symbols) are used by bridge players to name non-specific suits, nearly always in that order.
- stuff
- thing
- thingamabob (sometimes spelled thingumabob or thingumbob)
- thingamajig
- thingmie
- thingummy or thingummie
- thingymybob
- thingy
- ting
- whatchamacallit (originated by the phrase “What you may call it”, and sometimes shortened to whatchacallit)
- whatnot
- whatsit (sometimes spelled wotsit)
- whatsitsname (British form of whatchamacallit, sometimes spelled wossname)
- widget (especially in economics, for a product whose identity is unimportant)
- what's-his/her-face
- whoojemaflip
- whooziwhatzit
- A wigwam for a goose's bridle, Australian answer to naïve "What is that?"
- x
- yadda-yadda-yadda (popularized by the television show Seinfeld as a placeholder for "various events took place which I do not care to describe in detail".
- yoke (Commonly used in Ireland)
Thingamajigs are typically specialized devices which have a limited number of uses or a single specific use. The term is typically employed by one whose experience with the use of the object is nonexistent or very limited. Regular users of such devices would never refer to them as thingamajigs or any of the related terms listed below.
A thingamajig is different from a widget, in that a widget is an actual, but not yet named or constructed, mechanical component. It is also different from a gadget, in that “gadget” is the generic term for a superfluously useful device, such as a remote garage door opener, whose name is easily remembered.
Even among the world of otherwise nameless things referred to by placeholder names, there is a hierarchy of specificity. "Thing", as its name implies, is universally applicable. It is likely, however, that a "gizmo" involves some minor degree of technological sophistication, connoting as it does some mechanical or electronic aspect.
Most of these words exist in the less formal register of the English language. In more formal speech and writing, words like accessory, paraphernalia, artifact, instrument, or utensil are called into play; these words also refer to things made by human hands without getting specific about their form or function. These words also differ slightly in usage: artifacts are usually found objects of indeterminate age and purpose, while utensil suggests cutlery.
These words have been in regular use since at least the nineteenth century. Edgar Allan Poe wrote a short story entitled The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq., showing that particular form to be in familiar use in the United States in the 1840s. In Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, W. S. Gilbert makes the Lord High Executioner sing of a "little list" which includes:
. . . apologetic statesmen of a compromising kind,
Such as--What d’ye call him--Thing’em-bob, and likewise--Never-mind,
and ’St--’st--’st-- and What’s-his-name, and also You-know-who--
The task of filling up the blanks I’d rather leave to you.
According to Trey Parker's audio commentary, "schpadoinkle" was composed as a placeholder, and was not initially intended to actually be used in Cannibal! The Musical.
Computing-specific
Placeholder names are also used in computing.
- Foobar is commonly used as a placeholder for file, function and variable names. Distinguish FUBAR
- Hacker slang includes a number of placeholders, such as frob, which may stand for any small piece of equipment. To frob, likewise, means to do something to something. In practice it means: to adjust (a device) in an aimless way.
Other technical-sounding
Other words that may have specific technical meanings are occasionally used as placeholders as well. Some words that are so used in English include:
People
thingy = adverb.
-Important People
Kadigan-like expressions can refer to people as well. Among words or phrases used in English to refer to people of unknown or irrelevant name are:
- Tom, Dick and Harry, for a series of three specific unnamed (usually male) people; or for any quantity of unknown people, usually with the term "every", for example: "Every Tom, Dick and Harry showed up to the party." Harriet may sometimes be substituted for Harry for a more gender-balanced version of the phrase, or Sally may be added, as in the tv series 3rd Rock from the Sun. Originated in the Early Modern period of literature as Rafe, Robin, and Dick, who were often used as characters in plays.
- Uncle Tom Cobley and all — another placeholder phrase, in this case used to indicate a long list of people.
- So-and-so; also often used as a euphemism for a stronger, possibly vulgar epithet, for example, "that stupid...so-and-so!"
- Buddy (Newfoundland English), any male of unknown identity, often used in conjunction with "Whasisname".
- Joe Bloggs (British male, referring to anyone of unknown identity)
- Fred Bloggs (British male, referring to a subsequent unknown person)
- Fred Nerks or Fred Nerk or just Fred (as in "Fred, you can't turn right here" (Australian equivalent of Joe Bloggs))
- Joe Public (British English, refers to an average person in the street)
- A.N. Other (unspecified person on a list, often abbreviated to ANO)
- Joe Blow (average male person - North America); a.k.a. Joe Blow from Kokomo
- Joe Shmoe (average male person - North America)
- John (British English, colloquial term for male of unknown identity, also North American term for client of prostitute).
- John Doe/Jane Doe (North American term for unidentified corpse, litigant, or suspect)
- Jane Roe (the pseudonym of Norma Leah McCorvey in Roe v Wade, the watershed US Supreme Court case setting abortion rights)
- The Joneses (used as a placeholder for the typical average family, often one perceived to have higher social status or aspirations: Keeping up with the Joneses)
- Mrs Kafoops (Australian, slightly derogatory)
- Dat fella (Malaysian/Singaporean for "that fellow")
- Yer man (Irish male)
- Yer one (Irish female. Unlike the male form, sometimes used to connote contempt)
- Joe Soap (Irish English, refers to any typical person)
- Himself/Herself (Irish male/female)
- Lord/Lady Muck (Male/Female who is acting as if others are their servants)
- Frick and Frack (Indistinguishable Male pair)
- Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Indistinguishable Male pair, slightly derogatory)
- Grandma/Grandpa (a usually older adult lacking technical knowledge)
- PVT Snuffy or Joe Snuffy (US military, referring to any general soldier or low-ranking individual)
- Kadoogan (One example of 'kadigan' being used as a kadigan is in the Ren and Stimpy Show where Stimpy's last name is given as Kadoogan, an obvious reference to the word kadigan.)
- "Wendy Wellesley" is used as "Jane Doe" at Wellesley College
- Emmet and Grockle are mildly abusive yet affectionate West Country terms for tourists. "Emmet" is a dialect word for "ant".
- Matey is a West Country term for a person with whom one has an anticipated, temporary or intermittent personalised interaction restricted to specific requirements or actions, eg. "We'd got as far as the Okehampton Bypass when we stopped to give Matey there a jump-start."
- J. Random X (e.g., J. Random Hacker, J. Random User) is a term used in computer jargon for a randomly selected member of a set, such as the set of all users.
- Fnu Lnu is used by authorities to identify unknown suspects, the name being an acronym for First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown. If a person's first name is known but not the last, they may be called "John Lnu" or "Fnu Doe", and an unidentified person may be "Fnu Lnu". For example, a former interpreter for the United States military was charged as "FNU LNU", and a mute man whose identity could not be determined was arrested and charged with burglary in Harris County, Texas under the name "FNU-LNU" (charges were later dropped because authorities could not communicate with the man). Fnu-Lnu conjunctions may also be used if the person has only a single name, as in Indonesian names. The name has been considered a source of humor when "Fnu Lnu" has been mistaken for the actual name of a person.
Certain fixed expressions are used as placeholder names in a number of specialized contexts. In formal legal contexts, John Does are sometimes mentioned; in more informal English, people sometimes need to speak of Old So-and-so or What’s-’is-name or What’s-’is-face (cruder) or Miss Thing. Tommy Atkins is a mythical Briton who filled out all his forms correctly, and as such lent his name to British soldiers generally; his Canadian counterpart is "Corporal (or some other rank) Bloggins". John Smith, often from “Anytown, U.S.A.” and John Q. Public are also used as placeholder names, for unnamed citizens and similarly in Britain, one might refer to Joe Bloggs. "Joe Random" or "Joe Average" are also referred to, sometimes more specifically as "Joe Average Voter" or "Joe Random Customer". In Australia, the name John Citizen is used in a similar capacity on samples of forms or cards. In America, Joe or Jane Sixpack refers to the perceived average middle or working class person. In theatre, television and motion pictures, the great actors Walter Plinge, David Agnew, and George Spelvin are pseudonyms used for cast members who prefer to go unnamed. The name Alan Smithee is similarly used by film directors who wish to remain anonymous (often because their film did not turn out well). Conversely, placeholders can be used to conceal identity, as seen in the above Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics. The Newfoundland entertainer "Buddy Whasisname" derives his stage name from a common local usage (combining two terms) describing an unknown male.
Movies and theatre also give rise to another specific type of kadigan, the MacGuffin. This is any object or person used to drive a plot or as the goal of a quest, but which otherwise has no relevance to the action, and thus could be replaced in the script with another similar item with no loss of sense. A foozle is a generic enemy or group of enemies that must be defeated for the plot to move on in a game.
Cryptographers conventionally use a fixed cast of characters when describing their systems in general terms. For example, the quintessential cryptographic system has Alice wanting to send a message to Bob without Eve being able to eavesdrop on them. These are even used in formal, peer-reviewed papers in the field, see Alice and Bob.
Forms of address
Some placeholders are used in second-person to address another, usually — but not always — because the second party's name is unknown.
Sir or Madam/Ma'am. In English-speaking society, the most universally-accepted forms of address to another person, known or unknown, and regardless of station, are "Sir" (to men) and "Madam", sometimes shortened to "Ma'am", (to women). "Sir" and "Madam/Ma'am", for example, are considered acceptable forms of address for most of the world's heads of state, including royalty.
Friend. "Friend" or other synonyms of amity may be used in its literal sense, but is often used ironically to indicate displeasure or hostility. May also be used between strangers in a non-ironic manner. Used especially among Quakers, the Society of Friends.
Terms of endearment. Words such as "honey" or "sweetie" are generally perceived as affectionate between friends, family or intimates. Outside this group, or in more formal or professional settings, the use of these words becomes more problematic. Their use by a person to a member of the opposite sex may be seen as forward or presumptuous, or even patronizing and demeaning (especially when used by a man to a woman). When used by a woman to address another woman, the sense may be friendly or hostile (see Friend, above); when used by a man to another man, it is generally perceived to have homosexual overtones (i.e., suggesting that either the speaker or the addressee — or both — is homosexual).
Second-person kadigans include:
- Amigo (Spanish for "friend"); occasionally used by non-Hispanics when calling out to an unknown Hispanic male (though might be considered rude or offensive)
- Angel
- Baby or
- Babe
- Big Boy or Big Guy or Big Man
- Bird (UK, woman, usually young; cf. chick). Also My Bird : a traditional Cornish term of endearment from an older female to a younger one.
- Bloke (Man, British English)
- Boo, (urban slang) significant other
- Boss
- Boyo
- Bro
- Bra (Variant of 'bro')
- Bredren (Jamaican slang or Rastafarian vocabulary, derived from "Brethren")
- Brother:
- a "close male friend" ()
- a male person "engaged in the same movement" (; )
- slang form of address meaning "fellow" or "buddy", as in "Brother, can you spare a dime?" (, )
- one black male to another (; )
- a normal form of address for a members of various fraternal or monastic groups ()
- Buddy or Bud ("Buddy" is especially common in Newfoundland English)
- B'y: Newfoundland pronunciation of "Boy", used as a general form of address primarily to a male but now increasingly to females. It does not hold any of the derogatory meaning that the term "Boy" does in standard English, especially when directed at minorities
- Chick (woman, usually young). Sometimes perceived as disrespectful of women.
- Chief (for a person in authority)
- Chum or Chummie/Chummy - the latter being also an insider term often used by UK Police to refer to an as-yet unidentified suspect.
- Cobber
- Cuz (Australian Aboriginal English, derived from 'cousin').
- Darling
- Dear or Dearie
- Doll or Dolly
- Dude (man or woman; also a general exclamation)
- Dudette. Sometimes used as the female version of dude.
- Duck, Ducks, Ducky or my Duck
- Fella (UK + Australian, man, stranger or person)
- Friend
- G (abbreviation for "gangster," often used ironically)
- Geezer (Man, British English; in American English, an irreverent term for an older man)
- Grandma, Gram, or Granny, an address to an older woman. Can be disrespectful.
- Grandpa, Grampa, or Gramps, an older man - may denote disrespect.
- Guv or Guvnor (UK, man) - usually one's boss or senior.
- Guy or Guys (to a man)
- Homeboy or Homey or Homes (may be used as a term or endearment between male friends, or aggressively by strangers or enemies)
- Honey or Hon
- Jack (man), generally in an unfriendly sense
- Kid
- Lad or Lass
- Lady (woman)
- Little one
- Little man
- Love (UK)
- Ma'am, Madam, or Madame (woman)
- Mac (man)
- Maid, (Newfoundland English and West Country) a woman, or a young unmarried girl or daughter
- Man (to a man). It may also be used as an interjection, not addressed to anyone in particular, in which case it is not truly a kadigan ("Aw, man!").
- Mate (UK, man)
- My Lover (Southwestern UK)
- Miss, generally addressed to a young woman or girl. In some dialects, it is a form of address for a female teacher, regardless of her marital status.
- Missus, Newfoundland English term of respect or affection for a mature woman. Also in British English, a term of affectionate reference to one's wife/female partner/steady girlfriend.
- Neighbour
- Nigga, (African American Vernacular English) though it has been known to be used between Black people as a term of endearment, there is a controversy associated with its usage as it is an eye dialect of a racial slur, and an on going debate as to whether or not there is any meaningful difference between the two terms.
- Oppo (uk), typically a term used to describe a colleague in the construction industry.
- Pal or Pally
- Padre, from the Spanish word for "father", a military kadigan for any man of the cloth, regardless of denomination
- Pop or Pops, often a disrespectful term for an older man
- Shorty, (urban slang) an attractive female. It can also be addressed to someone younger than the addressee or to a colleague that is new or inexperienced in the same field as the addressee (ie: a rookie, a new rapper)
- Sister (woman)
- Sis, shortened version of sister
- Skipper, Newfoundland English term of respect or affection for a mature man
- Son: generally used by an older man to one at least a generation younger; or by a man who, by virtue of rank or position, has charge or authority over the other, such as a drill sergeant over a private soldier. In the latter instance, it may be in a hostile context: "Son, you'd best move your ass before you find my foot up it!"
- Sonny or Sonny boy: also generally used by an older man to one at least a generation younger; there would be a degree of hostility: "Listen to me, Sonny boy ..."
- Sunshine
- Sweetheart or Sweetie
Places
In some forms of English, placeholder names exist to represent locations, particularly the stereotypical backward, insignificant or isolated town in the middle of nowhere. These include:
- Anytown, USA and Dullsville in the USA
- Auchterturra in Scotland, and Glenboggin, which has its own official website
- Bally-Go-Backwards in Ireland (unspecified remote small country town)
- Black Stump or also "Albuquerque" in Australia and New Zealand (“beyond the black stump” indicates an extremely remote location).
- Up the Boohai (approximately "boo-eye") in New Zealand, occasionally given as, Up the Boohai hunting pukekos with a long handled shovel. The Boohai is a fictitious river. It is used to indicate that the answerer does not wish to respond to any question involving "where?". Up the Boohai can also indicate that plans are apparently ruined or an item is extremely non-functional.
- The Boondocks (or the Boonies)
- (East/West) Bum(ble)fuck (or Butt Fuck) in the USA (vulgar). Bumblefuck, Missouri was popularized by the 1988 movie Rain Man. Also heard as Bumfuck, Iowa or Bumfuck, Idaho.
- BFN or 'Bum(butt) fuck, nowhere', refers to being in a remote location or destination and not having the slightest clue where you are, or that where you are isn't anywhere.
- BFE or Bumblefuck, Egypt (also Bumfuck, Egypt, Butt Fuck, Egypt or Beyond Fucking Egypt) (vulgar), refers to an unspecified remote location or destination, assumed to be arduous to travel to, unpleasant to visit and/or far away from anything of interest to the speaker (e.g. Man, you parked way the hell out in BFE). In Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, this is often referred to as East Jabip. In the Chicago metropolitan area, the term was coined to refer to the region in downstate Illinois known as "Little Egypt", centered in Cairo, Illinois, for being the furthest from the urban center in both distance and way of life.
- Buttcrack or Upper Buttcrack (usually a New England state)
- Crackerland and Jerkwater (from the 1982 film First Blood, small hometowns of typical US Army recruits)
- East Jabib, refers to an obscure location far across town.
- East Jesus
- Dog River, Armpit or Moose Fuck (vulgar) in Canada
- Hickville is used to describe a small farming town. (Hick comes from hillbilly)
- Loamshire for a rural county in England (and the Loamshires for a regiment based in that county)
- Podunk in the USA
- Sainte-Clotilde-de-Rubber-Boot in Quebec, Canada
- Timbucktoo is still commonly used to refer to an unspecified but remote place. Sometimes exaggerated as "timbuckthree", "timbucktwelve", etc. to indicate further removed than timbucktoo.
- Tipperary can still be used to denote anywhere thast is 'a long way from home'.
- Upper Rubber Boot in Ontario, Canada
- Woop Woop, Upper Woop Woop or Oodnawoopwoop or Wopwops in Australia and New Zealand (often 'out Woop Woop' as in, 'they live out Woop Woop somewhere,' and used when referring to people who live in a country area unfamiliar to the speaker).
- Waikikamukau (pronounced ‘Why kick a moo-cow’) in New Zealand
Other place names include:
- Blackacre, Whiteacre, and Greenacre are widely used in law courses to represent hypothetical estates in land.
- Joe's Diner is used to refer to a typical restaurant run as a small business.
Common components of placeholders for places are -town, -ville, -hampton (in the United Kingdom), -vale, Big-, Mid-, Middle-, Little-, Small-, Bally- (in Ireland), and Any-. The National Health Service of the UK, as well as the Department for Transport, use a large variety of placeholders as examples, including:
- Axtley
- Port Lever
- Lampton
- Middlehampton
- Anyshire
- Eastern Vale
- St Elsewhere's
Numbers
Dates and times
- "Eleventh Hour" describes an indeterminate time just prior to a deadline. As in "It got done at the eleventh hour, but thankfully the client suspected nothing."
- Composite names such as "Juvember" (combining June and November), "Septober" (September and October), and "Decemuary" (December and January) are sometimes used to refer to an indeterminate month.
- Nonexistent days, such as February 31 or the 12th of Never (usually given as the intended date of occurrence for something that will never happen, as in the popular song The Twelfth of Never).
- Nonexistent times, such as 13 o'clock, often used to describe when something is going to start or finish, but meaning it's still a long way off.
- "Tib's Eve", named for the nonexistent Saint Tib, is a date which does not exist.
- "Two hairs past a freckle", (or "a freckle past a hair") said when one is asked the time but despite making the habitual gesture, is not wearing a watch. Is sometimes extended to "A hair past a freckle, going on a mole."
- Also "Skin o' clock" or "Half-past my elbow"
- "God-thirty in the morning," "holy mackerel o'clock," "silly o'clock", "butt crack of dawn" referring to a time very early in the morning
- "Oh-dark thirty," "Oh-dark hundred," or "Zero Dark and Stupid" also referring to some time early in the morning (before the sun rises); usage is derived from military parlance, where 4:00 a.m. is referred to as "oh-four-hundred"
- "Dark plus thirty" meaning (loosely) just after sunset in Rainbow Gathering or Deadhead (or other festival) vernacular, meaning or thirty minutes after sundown, or more humorously, in at some indeterminate time after dark, Rainbow Gatherings tending not to happen according to any sort of schedule.
- "Dark o' clock" may mean early or late.
- "Late-thirty" may mean late at night.
- "Beer thirty" means it's time for the first beer in a beer-drinking session. Alternatively, beer thirty means an unspecified time during a long bout of drinking or thirty minutes until beer is no longer sold in stores, meaning that it is time for a beer run. Can also be used by bartenders to denote the time when the last drunks from the bar are driving home after closing time.
- "Pub O'Clock" also refers to drinking, but more specifically going to the pub to drink. Also "Pint O'Clock".
- "Yonks" is used in English to mean a long but indefinite duration; it is conjectured to derive either from "donkey's years" or from "years, months and weeks". This has been going on for donkey's yonks.
- "Half past a monkey's ass" or "Half past a monkey's ass and quarter till his balls" is used when one is asked the time but doesn't want to be bothered. Similarly: "Half past give-a-shit"
- "Sparrow's fart" is an Australian expression meaning very early in the morning - e.g., "I have to get up at sparrow's fart!"
- "Tooth-Hurty" (two thirty) Time to go to the dentist.
Distances
- "Stone's throw" / "stonecast", the distance somebody may throw a stone. It is most likely no more than 100 meters
Placeholder names in other languages
Most other languages have placeholders of some sort in their vocabulary.
Arabic
Arabic uses Fulan / Fulana[h] ???? / ????? and when a last name is needed it becomes Fulan AlFulani / Fulana[h] AlFulaniyya[h] ???? ??????? / ????? ????????. When a second person is needed, ?illan / ?illana[h] ???? / ????? is used. The use of Fulan has been borrowed into Spanish, Portuguese, Persian and Turkish, as shown below.
Bengali
Bengali uses the universal placeholder ye (from the Hindi pronoun for he/she/it). Ye is used for everything-people, places, things, times, or numbers. ???? omuk can also be used as a placeholder for people.
Bosnian
Bosnian uses the name Hepek to refer to any object or person. The word was often used by Top Lista Nadrealista.
Bulgarian
In Bulgarian, "takova" or "takovata" can be used in place of a noun, and "takovam" as a verb. The latter often can have obscene connotations, but it's generally not considered profane.
Catalan
Catalan uses the names daixonses / daixonsis and dallonses / dallonsis to refer to any object or person; d'aixo (in English: "of this") and d'allo (in English: "of that") are also used with the same purpose
Chinese
In Chinese, question words are used as placeholders. An unspecified object is shénme or shénme shénme (literally, "what what"), an unspecified location is nali , literally "where," an unspecified person mou , literally "someone," and so on.
Zhang San , Li Si and Wang Wu are Chinese placeholder names. Occasionally, Lu Er , Zhao Liu and Sun Qi and Wang Ermazi are also used (when more than three placeholder names are needed). Zhang, Li, Wang, Zhao and Sun are among the most common Chinese surnames. Literal meanings of the given names San, Si, Wu, Liu and Qi are three, four, five, six and seven, respectively.
In Hong Kong, another two placeholder names, Wong Siu Ming and Chan Tai Man , are also used.
Czech
In Czech, there are several placeholder words for things like toto, tentononc, udelátko (gadget), hejble, etc. For persons, týpek placeholder word is becoming increasingly popular (in slang, among young people, etc.). Czechs and Slovaks would also usually understand each other placeholder words.
Danish
In Danish a common placeholder word is dims (derived from German Dings), used for small unspecified objects (gadgets). Other placeholders for objects are dingenot, himstregims and tingest, all probably stemming from dims. Faraway countries are often called Langtbortistan, lit. Farawayistan. Backwards places in the countryside are called Lars Tyndskids marker, lit. The fields of Lars Diarrhea, as in The house is out near Lars Tyndskids marker - typically used by city dwellers who seldom get to see the countryside up close.
Dutch
In Dutch the primary placeholder is dinges (derived from ding, "thing"), used for both objects and persons. The diminutive of ding, dingetje (lit. "little thing" or "thingy") serves as a kadigan for objects when used with an article, and for persons without. 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) while 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. Obscure, faraway places are Timboektoe and Verweggistan (lit. "Farawayistan"); the archetypal small village is Nergenshuizen ("Nowhereville"), or more informally Boerenkoolstronkeradeel ("Kalestumperadeel", -eradeel being an archetypal suffix for municipalities in Friesland), or in vulgar speech Schubbekutterveen (literally "Scales-cunt-moor"). Lutjebroek is also used in this sense, but is actually a real village. The nonsense word hutsefluts is used as a placeholder for just about any proper name. Sint-Juttemis is used as a nonsensical date, meaning "never", even though it may be derived from a real saint's day. Stront met streepjes ("Shit with stripes") is a placeholder name for food, as is worst ("sausage"), both generally used after someone asks what food is going to be eaten.
Flemish usually makes use of either Steenokkerzeel (which is a genuine place name) or Koekelorekapelle (many place names end in -kapelle, meaning "chapel").
The Dutch name for an unspecified person is rarely said to be Jef Van Pijperzele, though most people just use Jan Jansen instead. Jef is a common pet form of Jozef. Another pet form is Jos.
Elckerlyc (Every-body, literally in old Dutch) is a character from a medieval play Elckerlyc en de Dood (Everybody and the Death). It is sometimes used to say any mortal.
In Brussels Dutch dialect, an unspecified far-ago time is den taaid van de blieke pataten (the time when potatoes were pale blue). In Flanders, an obsolete object is said to date van het jaar Stillekes (from year Gently).
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 umaci (with pejorative suffix -ac-), "doing something fishy". The affix-turned-lexeme ajo "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 referred as «io ajn» (anything, some thing), or «ajno» (informal); the forms "ajna" and "ajne" ("any kind of" and "in any way") are acceptable colloquial synthetic variants of the longer and more formal "ia ajn" and "iel ajn".
Filipino
Things
In the Tagalog language "kwan" can be used for any object that cannot be remembered or identified. Usually old people use this term.
"Yung ano" is another way of saying "kwan," but it is used mostly by young people.
People
Placeholders for people include "Juan Dela Cruz", the Philippine Uncle Sam and, "Poncio Pilato" another term for the everyman.
"Si ano" (personal singular case marker+"what") is also used to refer to people whose names escape the speaker.
"kwan" can be used for people.
Finnish
Things
Hilavitkutin is one of the most common Finnish placeholder words for technical objects and machinery. It refers to "a device for vitkuttaa-ing a lattice". The ordinary meaning of the verb vitkuttaa is nonsensical in this context, as it means "to do something slowly in order to delay it". Arguably, vitkuttaa can also evoke associations of oscillation, "shaking back and forth", in native speakers of Finnish. The suffix -tin denotes a tool or device. The usage is same as that of English "whatsit".
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 whereever", etc.
Juttu has the literal meanings "story", "criminal/court case", or "issue", but may refer to virtually anything inanimate. Other generic placeholder words in colloquial use include systeemi or sydeemi ("system"), and juttu (also jutska or judanssi), homma and hommeli ("thing", "thingy"). Tilpehööri derives phonetically from the Swedish language "tillbehör" (that which is included), and can refer especially to very small items, often found in small plastic bags, needed to put together furniture (say from IKEA) or other kits (model planes for example). Tilpehööri is always clearly useful and needed to something; unnecessary, unneeded or obscure small items are called höhä or sälä.
People
Placeholders for people include the ubiquitous Matti Meikäläinen (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"), Tauno Tavallinen ("Tauno the Ordinary") or Veijo Luuseri ("Veijo the Loser"). In official contexts, the initials N.N. (from the Latin nomen nescio, "name unknown") are used.
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 "type", kaveri "friend" and joku "someone" may be used as placeholders for persons. Kaveri is used especially in contact sports and somewhat ironically of troublemakers in security slang or in other contexts where the "friend" is a complete stranger and is not acting very friendly.
Pihtiputaan mummo ("the grandmother from Pihtipudas") is the proverbial last or least capable person to adapt to a specific change, such as the euro or digital TV.
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.
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 Pihtiputaan mummo ("the grandmother from Pihtipudas"). They are usually spelled with a small initial letter when they are used as placeholder names. Foreign, distant places that may be used at Timbuktu and Indokiina. A faraway place can be found in Pippurlandia, which translates as "pepper-land"; "as far as the pepper grows". Other places, whose actual coordinates are unknown and obscure, but which clearly are far away, are Hornantuutti (chute of Hell), Huitsin-Nevada, Vinku-Intia (Whine-India) and Hevonkuusi ("Horse's Spruce" cf. in the sticks).
Dates and times
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 commonly used 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.
Military usage
In Finnish military slang, tsydeemi has traditionally been used to refer 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 pikakivääri (rapid fire rifle) VKT23, which originally was called vekotin.
ICT usage
In information technology, a small program which is supposed to do one thing well, is called kilke. This word has a connotation of "makeshift". Software consisting of several kilke may be called tsydeemi (system). Another word for systems like this is judanssi.
A program that takes something as input and turns it into something other useful, but always human-readable information, is called pulautin. This is perhaps most often applied to web services that do this.
French
Things
In French, an unspecified artifact can be:
bidule (n.m.); this is from military slang for something in disarray. It most probably comes from a dialectal word meaning "mud". machin (n.m.), derived from machine truc (n.m.), whose primary meaning is trick chose (n.f.), thing toutim or tout'l'toutim (plural): things
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.
In Brussels slang, brol is either a heap of random small objects, or a nondescript object of little value.
Numbers
Mille et un'' (one thousand and one) or ''trente-six'' (thirty-six) are used for an unknown large number, as in ''je te l'ai dit trente-six fois'' (I said it to you umpteen times).''Des poussières'' (some dust specks) can be joined to any number or measure to add an indefinite small amount, as in ''deux mètres et des poussières'' (two meters and a bit).''Des patates'' (some potatoes, slang) and ''Des brouettes'' (some wheel-barrows) are variations of ''Des poussières'' in increasing amounts.
People
Common placeholder names for people are
- In slang: Tartampion, Machin, Machin-chose, Mec, Trucmuche, Chose-binne, Patante, Duchnoque, Duchmolle.
- In proceedings and other more formal settings: "X" (''Monsieur X''), "Y", ''Monsieur untel'', ''madame unetelle''... (see XYZ Affair)
- ''Pierre-Paul-Jacques'' or ''Pierre-Jean-Jacques'' is used to designate anyone and everyone at the same time, in the third person, in an informal context. The very common ''Jean Dupont'' is used the same way as ''John Doe'' is in English.
- ''Monsieur/Madame Tout-le-Monde'' or ''Toulemonde'' (Mr. Everybody) is the average citizen.
- ''Les Dupont-Durand'' are the average extended family ; they could also be a couple looking for a bargain, e.g. buying an apartment.
- ''La veuve de Carpentras'' (the widow from Carpentras, a city in southern France) is the archetypal absolute bear customer in stock exchange literature.
- ''Pierre et Paul'' are common characters in jokes. They're often used in mathematical literature about probabilistic theory: many problems begin with ''Pierre et Paul jouent aux dés'' (Peter and Paul are throwing dice). The main schools for this science were the French one and the Russian one; ''Piotr'' and ''Pavel'' are very common first names in Russian too.
- ''Chose-bottine-pas-d'lacets'' (in acadian french) which literally means ''boot with no laces-guy''.
Places
In France:
- Trifouillis-les-Oies (small village)
- Perpète, Perpète-les-Oies, Pétaouchnock or Diable vauvert (for a place that is far away)
- Tombouctou (genuine town name in Mali)
In French-speaking Belgium, Outsiplou or even Outsiplou-les-Bains-de-Pieds (Outsiplou-the-footbath) is used for 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, possibly from the village of that name in Tunisia. The Star Wars planet Tatooine most probably owns its name from the same village, as many scenes were filmed nearby.
In Québec:
Far away rural places:
- ''St-Clinclin'', ''St-Meumeu'', or ''Saint-clinclin-des-Meumeu'' (far away rural region; "meuh" is the onomatopoeia for mooing)
- ''Îles Moukmouk'' (Moukmouk Islands, some far away islands)
Dates and times
To refer to an event that will never occur, it can be set "à la Saint-Glinglin" or "La semaine des quatre jeudis" (the week with four Thursdays, because in the past children didn't have school on Thursday).
One can also refer to an event which will never occur saying "tous les trente six du mois", meaning "Every thirty-sixth of the month"
There is a well-known judgment about a debtor who committed himself to pay on the day of Saint-Glinglin, his creditor apparently not knowing it doesn't exist. The judge decided the discharge would take place on All Saint's day, since that's the proper moment for honouring Saints who don't have their dedicated day, including fake ones.
Georgian
Chichiko Bendeliani 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 second metasyntactic variable would be Bichiko. 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.
Places
Jandaba is an indefinite placename for an unspecified (and assumed to be remote) location in Georgia.
German
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'' may be used for any kind of machinery or technical equipment (origin: ''Apparat''). 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 obtained 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.
The German equivalent to the English ''John Doe'' for males and ''Jane Doe'' for females would be ''Max Mustermann'' (Mr. Sample) and ''Erika Mustermann'', respectively. For many years, Erika Mustermann was 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 genderwise. When refering to an "Average Joe", the names ''Otto Normalverbraucher'' (male, lit. "Otto Average-Consumer") and ''Lieschen Müller'' (female) are commonly used, corresponding to the American "The Joneses". Otto Normalverbraucher is taken from bureaucratic jargon of post-WW2 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'' / ''Haumichblau'' (lit. "Infantryman Tin-Can-Cabbage / Beat-Me-Up") as a derogatory placeholder for the name of a (poorly-performing) recruit. In Cologne, ''Otto'' (which can also refer to a gadget) and ''Gerdi'' are popular used names for men/boys and women/girls with unknown firstname. ''Bert'' also had some popularity as a placeholder for names in the past.
For remote or exotic locations, Germans also use ''Timbuktu'', ''Buxtehude'' or ''Dort, wo der Pfeffer wächst.'' (There, where the pepper is growing.), as is common in the English language; for towns or villages in the German-speaking world, ''Kuhdorf'' or ''Kuhkaff'' (lit. ''cow village'', somewhat derogatory) and ''Kleinkleckersdorf'' (lit. ''Little Make-a-mess village''), ''Kleinsiehstenich'' (lit. ''Small-can't-see''), ''Hintertupfing''/''Hintertupfingen'' (usually implies that some small, rural and old-fashioned village is meant) 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'' are in usage. ''Herr X. aus Y. an der Z.'', which derives from usage in newspapers, is used occasionally. Other kadigans such as ''Bad Sonstwo an der Irgend'' have been suggested.
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). Eg. 'If Tade comes and asks me, I know what to say'. There is also the name Foufoutos used more jokingly. Unofficially, most cadigans 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" serves as a placeholder for a distant place.
Hawaiian Pidgin (English)
Hebrew
In Hebrew, the word ''??'' (''zeh'', meaning 'this') is a placeholder used in place of any noun. The most popular personal name placeholders are ''??-???'' (''mahshmo'') or 'whatsisname' (thus: 'Tell mahshmo to put the zeh on the zeh'), ''??????'' (''Moshe'' = ''Moses'') and ''??????'' (''Yossi'', diminutive form of ''Joseph'') for first name, and ''?????'' (''Cohen'', the most popular last name in Israel) for last name. However, in ID and credit card samples, the usual name is ''Israel Israeli'' for a man and ''Israela Israeli'' for a woman (these are actual first and last names) - similar to John and Jane Doe.
The traditional terms are Ploni ????? and his party Almoni ?????? (originally mentioned in Ruth 4:1). Ploni Almoni also is used in official, contemporary situations. For example, addressing guidelines by Israel postal authorities utilize Ploni Almoni as the addressee.
A vulgar term for an unspecified place mostly popular in the Israel army is ''???????????'' (''pizdelokh'', formed from the Russian ''pizda'', ''pussy'', and the German and Yiddish ''Loch'' = ''hole''). Also quite common is ''???????'' (''Tiz (e) Nabi'' “the prophet’s ass”, from Arabic), and again ''Timbuktu''. A kadigan for a time in the far past is ''????"?'' (pronounced ''Tarapapu'', which somewhat resembles a year in the Hebrew calendar but is not quite one).
Especially older Ashkenazi speakers often employ the Yiddish placeholders "Chaim Yankel" and "Moishe Zugmir". ''Buzaglo'' (a typical Moroccan-Jewish last name) is a placeholder for a simple lower-class citizen. 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 suffix ''-shehu'' can be added to any question word to indicate something unknown. Similar to the English prefix 'some' as follow, ''ma'' ('what') > ''mashehu'' ('something'); ''mi'' ('who') > ''mishehu'' ('someone'); ''eyfo'' ('where') -> ''eyfoshehu'' ('somewhere').
Hungarian
In Hungarian the word ''izé'' (a stem of ancient Finno-Ugric heritage) is used, referring 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 (often meaning: screw up) something (transitive verb), ''izéltet'' to cause someone to whatchamacallit (transitive verb), ''izélget'' to whatchamacallit continually (often meaning: pester, bother – frequentative verb), ''izélodik'' to whatchamacallit (fool, mess) around (durative 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. A word with a similar meaning and use is the word "cucc", usually translated as "stuff", and "bigyó", translated as either "thing"/"thingie" or "gadget".
To name things, Hungarians also use ''micsoda'' (whatisit), ''hogyhívják'' or ''hogyishívják'' (whatitscalled), ''miafene'' (whatdaheck), ''bigyó'' (thingie), ''miafasz'' (whatdafuck, literally "whatthedick" or "whatthepenis").
John Smith (US: John Doe) is the same in Hungarian; ''Kovács János'' or ''Gipsz Jakab'' (John Smith or Jake Gypsum, or Jakob Gipsch).
Place names: ''Mucsaröcsöge'' (ending sounds similar to ''röfög'' - to grunt), ''Bivalybasznád'' (literally: buffaloyouwouldfuck), Tiszaszétszaród or Jászbivalyhónalja: little village or boonies far out in the countryside, ''Kukutyin'' or ''Piripócs'': ?illage or small town somewhere in the countryside
Indonesian
There is no single name that is widely accepted, but the name of Indonesian first president, Sukarno can be found in many articles. Sukarno being a Javanese name that's representing about 45% of the Indonesian population, and the fact that his name is one-worded (see Indonesian name), make it popular as example because he's a well know political figure.
Other male names: Joni (Indonesian for Johnny), and Budi (widely used in elementary textbook).
Popular female placeholder names: Sinta, Sri, Dewi
Fulan (male), and Fulanah (female) are also often found, especially in religious articles (both are derived from Arabic).
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 for internationality.
Irish
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-languages 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" ''New York Times'', 2 June 1971] and "Don’t be vague, kill a Taig". ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 29 November 1986]
''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 (i.e. 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
In Italian, standard placeholders for inanimate objects are ''roba'' (literally, "stuff"), ''coso'' (related to ''cosa'', ''thing''), ''affare'' (literally, "an item of business"), and ''aggeggio'' (literally, "device" or "gadget").
A once very much-used term was also ''vattelapesca ("go and catch it"), especially for rare or uncommon objects. Now this term is quite obsolete.
The verb ''cosare'', derived from ''coso'', is sometimes used as placeholder for any other verb.
For people, widely used words are ''tizio'' and ''tipo'' (literally, "type", colloquial) as well as ''uno'' (literally, "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") to refer to an unknown person.
''Mario Rossi'' is a generic placeholder for people, expecially 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.
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''. Another common placeholder name for people is ''Pinco Pallino'', where neither word is a common Italian first or last name.
In information technology, especially in textbooks, a placeholder name for variables is ''pippo'' (Disney's Goofy); a second variable can be named ''pluto'', and a third one ''topolino'' (Mickey Mouse). Oddly enough, names of characters from Duckburg are much less often used.
One typical expression for a time very late at night is ''fare le ore piccole'' ("to do the small hours"), for the activity of staying up late at night, and ''alla buon'ora'' ("at the good time"), meaning "very early in the morning" or, in a joshing tone, "finally".
''Alle calende greche'' ("on 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 30 febbraio'' ("on February the 30th") means that an event is never going to take place.
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'').
A place far away and out of reach is ''a casa del diavolo'' (literally, ''at the devil's home'') or, more vulgarly, ''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'' (literally, "where the Lord has lost his shoes") and ''dove ha perso la camicia Cristo'' ("where Christ has lost his shirt").
Japanese
In Japanese, ''naninani'' (????, 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'' (????, doubled form of ''who'') can be used for people, and ''nantoka nantoka'' (????????, doubled form of ''something'') as a variant for things. ''Hoge'' (??, no literal meaning) has been gaining popularity in the computing world, where it is used much like ''foo'' and ''bar''.
''nyoro nyoro'' (literally "tilde tilde") is also a popular placeholder name.
Kannada
In Kannada the placeholder name for common man could be 'Manku Thimma', also used by famous Kannada poet D.V. Gundappa in his work "Manku Thimmana Kagga"
Korean
In Korean, ''mwomwomwo'' (???, a tripled form of ?, which is a short form of ??, the word for ''what'') is used in casual speech. ''Nugunugu'' and ''eodieodi'' (reduplication of ''who'' and ''where,'' respectively) can be heard as well.
''Hong Gildong,'' a male name, is commonly used as a placeholder name in instructions for filling out forms.
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.
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'' for a full male name and ''Janina Joniene'' for a full female name. The names are often used in the examples of form filling.
Probably the best 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 the actual origin of the name is Slavonic name of the nearby lake ''?????????'' (Bezdonniy), meaning "Bottomless". Another also well known derogatory placeholder name for a village or city is ''Kalabybiškis'' ("Chiseled Penis village").
Macedonian
In Macedonian ''????'' [jeeje] - for one, or ''????-????'' [jeejee-meejee] for more than one (usually small) object is used. Other words used are: ''???????'', ''???????'', ''????????'' (in English: "the like this", "the like that"), ''????-??'' (in English: "say-it"), ''???-???'' (in English: "this and that"), and ''????-????'' (in English: "here and there")
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 old use, and originated from the Arabic word ''fulan'', which means nameless.
Maori
In the Maori language, the word ''taru'', literally meaning “long grass” or “weeds” is used.
Marathi
In Marathi the complete generic name (First Middle Surname) for a male is 'Aamajee Gomaajee Kaapse' (????? ?????? ?????) like 'John Doe' in English. The other generic first names for men include 'Somya-Gomya' (??????-??????) like 'Tom-Dick-Harry' in English."Aatpat Nagar" is equivalent to "Anyplace, USA".
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 ''Storeby'' ("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.
When referring to unspecified objects, the words "dings" and "greie" is commonly used. Translated to English, they would mean "thingy" or "gadget". A "duppeditt" refers to a small and sometimes useless object. "Krimskrams" (from German) refers to a random heap of small items.
Persian
In Persian, for Places the word ???? ??, for people
the word ????? or ??? (in slang: ????) is used mostly. generic word that's used for calling anything, regardless of which type, is ???.
Polish
The aboundance of placeholder names appears generally in the spoken variety of the language.
Common nouns
In Polish, the most popular placeholders are ''to cos'' (literally meaning ''this something'', a widget), ''cudo'' (miracle), ''dynks'' (from the German ''Ding'' - regional, specific for county 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 Accusative cases), 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). The slang word ''pierdolnik'' also can be used, or, even more vulgar phrase ''Chuj wie co'' (lit. "A dick knows what"), sometimes contracted to the acronym ''HWC''.
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 that US ''Dullsville'' but is actually a little town in central Poland. More pictoresque description contains the common phrase ''gdzie psy ogonami (dupami) szczekaja'', literally meaning "Where dogs bark with their tails (arses)". Other terms include ''Pcim Dolny'' ("Lower Pcim", unexistent quarter of a real town in Malopolska), ''Kozia Wólka'' (lit. "Goat's Will", ''Wola'' and ''Wólka'' being frequent names of Polish villages). The standard place of a Polish joke is ''Wachock'' - a small town in Eastern Poland (voivodship of Kielce). The road leading to any place is sometimes called ''Droga na Ostroleke'' - after the popular Polish film ''Rejs''. Another, vulgar term is ''w pizdú'' (actually a Russian loan word) meaning "somewhere far away" (lit. "into the cunt").
People's names
A universal placeholder name for a person is ''Jan Kowalski'' (English counterpart of the ''Smith'', for a man) and ''Janina Kowalska'' (for a woman; used less often, sometimes with a different first name). A second unspecified person would be called ''Nowak'' (stands for the English "Newman"), 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, ''Kowalski'' and ''Nowak'' are the most popular Polish surnames. Like in mathematics, the letter x is used - an imaginary person can be called ''Iksinski''. Mostly in the spoken language, one can meet also a 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 identical root: 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, 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 ''koles'' (lit. a mate, a pal), ''facet'' or demunitive ''facio'' (a guy, a bloke) with female forms ''facetka'', ''facia''. Widespread are also ''gostek'', ''gosc'', ''gosciu'' (lit. a guest) and a new fashionable word ''ziomal'' (which roughly equates to the American "homie").
Date and time
A rare placeholder name for a time and date ''(jutro) w grudniu po poludniu'' ((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 quit often employed. For the rough hour description, the phrase ''achnasta ochnascie'' or ''fefnasta fefnascie'' is used. When discussing an event which is not actually expected to occur, the phrase ''na swietego digdy'' ( a play on the Polish for never nigdy, in essence St. Never's day) is sometimes uttered.
Numbers
Any number can be replaced with X. To describe roughly any number between 11 and 20, one can use ''nascie'' (lit. "teen") The same holds good for numbers between 20 and 100, where the ending ''dziesiat'' (lit. "-ty" as in "fifty" is popular. The general name for a big amount is ''masa''. The popular and slang expressions ''od cholery i ciut ciut'' (equivalent of the English "hell of a lot") or ''od groma'' (lit. "from a thunder") are used, let alone some vulgar terms like ''w kurwe'' or ''od chuja'' (lit. "from the cock"). For very big numbers one can meet the term ''pierdylion'' (zillion). 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''.
Portuguese
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. 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. ''Gajo'' is used in Portugal. ''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.
''Cascos-de-rolha'' (cork hooves) is used to designate a remote and uninteresting location. ''Onde o vento faz a curva'' (where the wind turns around) or ''Onde Judas perdeu as botas'' (where Judas lost his boots) is a very far away place. ''Cu-do-conde'' (Count's ass) or ''Cu-do-Judas'' (Judas' ass) are used for the same as "Cascos-de-Rolha", but are considered more impolite.
Also, like English ''fuck'' described above, both Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese have the offensive general-purpose ''porra'' (a curse word that in European Portuguese means "club" and refers to the penis — thus not being considered so offensive —, while in Brazilian Portuguese is a short form for "sperm"), being a placeholder for objects, actions, adjectives and other.
''Tal'' when used with another word means "something". For example, "trinta e tal euros" means "thirty-something euros". 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.
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,
''chestie'' is used for objects and concepts,
''cutare'' for both persons and things.
''Cutarica'', ''tip'' (masculine) or ''tipa'' (feminine) are sometimes used for persons. ''Popescu, Ionescu, Georgescu'', the most common Romanian surnames, are commonly used to signify everybody, or most people. ''Ion Popescu'', the most common Romanian name is used as an equivalent of ''John Doe'' or as a sample name for common paperwork.
''Dracie'' ("devilish thing") is a derogative placeholder name for objects (but the derogative nuance is not diabolical, it may simply suggest unfamiliarity or surprise, rather like the adjective "newfangled" in English). A more emphatic form posed as a question is "ce dracia dracului?" (lit. "what the devil's devilish [thing]?", similar to "what the hell").
Other expressions used include
''cum-îi-zice'' / ''cum-se-cheama'' ("what's-it-called"),
''nu-?tiu-cum/ce/care/cine/când'' ("I-don't-know-how/what/which/who/when"),
''cine ?tie ce/cum/care/cine/când" ("who-knows-what/how/which/who/when"), and
''un din-ala'' (masculine) or ''o-din-aia'' (feminine) ("one of those things").
Placeholders for numbers include ''zeci de mii'' ("tens of thousands"), often contracted to ''j'de mii'' (or even ''?â?pe mii''; from ''-?pe'', an informal numeral suffix equivalent to "-teen" in "sixteen", attached to ''?'', a Romanian letter sometimes seen as "extra", analogue to the English "a zillion") and also ''mii si mii'' ("thousands and thousands"). Diverse colloquial formulas for "a lot" exist, including ''o caru?a'' (lit. "a cart-full"), ''o gramada'' (lit. "a pile"), "cacalau" (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 "câta frunza, câta iarba" (lit. "as many leaves and blades of grass", referring to a large number of people).
''Cucuietii-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") also means a very remote place. For the same purpose, Romanians use also ''La Cuca Macaii'' (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 pa?tele cailor'' (when horses will celebrate Easter), ''Când o face plopu' pere'' (when pears will grow in a poplar), ''Când o zbura porcu' '' (when pigs will fly) and ''La Sfântul A?teapta'' (on Saint Wait's day) both mean "some day in the indefinite future, or quite likely never".
Russian
Things
In Russian, among the common placeholder names are ''??? ?????'' (''this particular [object]''), ''?????'' (''thing;'' diminutive forms also exist), ''?????'' (''leafy tops of root vegetables''), ''?????'' (crud) and ''?????'' (in mat slang; roughly translatable as ''something dickish''), ''?????????'' (same meaning as the previous one, but slightly less offensive).
A term for something awkward, bulky and useless is ''???????'' (''bandura'', an old Ukrainian musical instrument, big and inconvenient to carry).
A kadigan for a monetary unit is ''??????'' (''Tögrög'', the monetary unit of Mongolia).
People
In Russian, there's a special placeholder personal name ''Imyarek'' (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 ???? (Ivan), ???? (Pyotr/Peter), and ????? (Sidor), such as ''???? ???????? ???????'' (Ivan Petrovich Sidorov) for a full name, or ''??????'' (Ivanov) for a last name. ''??????? ??????'' (Vasiliy Pupkin) is also (jokingly) used as a generic name.
Words like ''??????'' (guy), ''???????'' (comrade), ''???????'' (hobo), ''???????'' (working man), ''?????'' (dude), ''????'' (male friend), ''???????'' (female friend), ''??????? ???????'' (young man), ''???????'' (young woman), ''?????????'' (citizen), ''?????????'' (respected one), ''???????'' (dear) all have their own meaning but may be and are used as second-person kadigans as well.
Places
- One of the most commonly used phrases is ''? ????? ?? ????????'' (lit. "at the devil's allotment"), which is roughly equal to English "at the world's end" and "in the back of beyond".
- Various city names are often employed as placeholders. For instance, to denote a remote, obscure place, ''????????????'' (Tmutarakan, an ancient Crimean city) is used.
- The capital of the Russian backwoods is ''????????'' (Uryupinsk, a town in central Russia), although recently ''????????'' (Babruysk, a Belarussian city), has gained its popularity in the Russian Internet community.
- ''???? ????? ????? ?? ?????'' ("There, where Makar didn't take calfs"), meaning "far-far away" or "somewhere, you won't like".
- In some occasions in literature ( by famous Russian and Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol) unknown places are referred to as ''...???? ?????'' (featuring a widespread adjective ending ''????'').
- In music (Zoopark discography) and literature Latin ''N'' is sometimes used as a placeholder for the actual name of the site, e.g. ''????? N'' ("city N").
Obscene
- ''?? ???'', meaning to hell or anywhere out of here (literally: onto a dick)
- ''? ????'' and ''? ?????'' meaning ''deep'' to hell (literally: into an ass, into a vagina)
- Derogatory kadigans for a remote and uninteresting town are ''??????????'' (Mukhosransk, "Fly's Shit Town") or ''????-????????????'' (Ust'-Perepizdyuisk).
Dates and times
- ''????? ???????? ? ???????'' ("right after rain on Thursday"), referring to indefinite time in future, or to something that will never happen.
- ''????? ??? ?? ???? ????????'' ("as soon as a crayfish on the next hill whistles" — equivalent of "When pigs fly"), meaning the same as ''????? ???????? ? ???????'', and being sometimes combined with it.
- ''?? ???? ?? ????'' ("neither light, nor dawn"), ''????????'', ''??????????'' and so on, speaking of the very early time in the morning.
- ''?? ??????? ???? ??????'' ("when Gorokh was the tsar") — a very long, indefinite time ago; prehistorically.
Slovak
In Slovak, the most common placeholders are ''oné'' (originally an indefinite pronoun) or ''tento'' (originally a definite pronoun, close deixis) which can be used for both things and names. The most common placeholder for a full personal name is ''Janko Mrkvicka'' or ''Jožko Mrkvicka'' (lit. "Johnny/Joe Little Carrot"). 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). It is often used in derogatory fashion to indicate a tiny and remote village (compare US English Hicksville). ''Dzindzík'' is used as a placeholder for (control) elements of various devices. It is often used interchangeably with ''bazmek'' (derived from Hungarian "bazd meg" meaning "go fuck yourself") which can also be used to refer to entire devices or machines.
Spanish (Europe)
Things
''Cacharro'' is generally used for objects and/or devices around the kitchen.
"Bicho" , a pejorative term, (from the Latin ''bestius''-''bestia'') is used when the specific animal species is unknown, but also is a reference to the male copulative organ (Cuba).
''Vaina'' is word commonly used by Dominicans to refer to any object.
''Octiembre'' is used to refer to a time (month) which will never arrive, as a combination of Octubre (October) and the ending iembre of Septiembre, Noviembre or Diciembre (September, November, December).
People
Placeholder names in the Spanish language might have a pejorative or derogatory feeling to them, depending on the context.
''Fulano/a'', (from the Arabic ''fulán'' meaning whomever), (the female version ''Fulana'' should be used carefully as it also means "prostitute", but the diminutive form ''Fulanita'' is safe).
''Mengano'' (from the Arabic ''man kán'' –quien sea-whomever).
''Zutano'' (from the Castilian word ''citano'' from the Latin ''scitanus'' "known").
''Perengano'' (from the combination of the very common last name of Perez and Mengano).
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''.
Numbers
''tropecientos'' ("trope hundred"), ''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 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)
''Ciclano'' and ''Esperancejo'' are used in Cuban Spanish.
''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" in English.
Mexican Spanish speakers use the words ''chingadera'' ("fuckery") or ''madre'' (lit. Mother), not to be used in polite circumstances, also using the word ''mierda'' which in most of the contexts has the same function as the word 'shit' in English, the word ''güey'' (from buey) used between young people to refer each other.
Argentinian ''Coso'' (Thing) is used for a generic physical object, usually replaces a noun when the speaker doesn't remember the name (i.e. ''Pasame el coso ese que esta en la mesa'', ''Hand me that thing on the table''). Also ''Chirimbolo'' (Trinket, Tchotche), ''Pendorcho'' (Small object, possibly a fastener or small mechanical device). ''Pirifilar los rembos'' (To perform a technical sounding action ''Pirifilar'' onto devices called ''rembos'')
In Chilean and Peruvian Spanish the word ''hue'ón'' (from ''huevón'', from ''huevo'', an 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. Another group of placeholders is ''weon'' (male person, ''weona'' (female person) and ''weá'' (thing).
Things
For a generic thing ''vaina'' is used for things not well known, but it indicates anger or lost of temper. "Comosellame" is also used.
People
''Juan perez'' (John Doe, Perez being a common surname, like Smith)
Argentina: ''Fulano'', ''Mengano'' and ''Zutano''. Placeholder names for generic people, usually used in that order if one two or three are needed.
Argentina: ''NN'', No nominado (Unnamed, used in police reports, famously used for unidentified bodies found during the Dirty War.
Argentina: ''Magoya'' Non-existent person used sarcastically ("Que te ayude magoya", may magoya help you, meaning: You are on your own)
Argentina: ''Mandrake'' Magician with supernatural powers. (''No lo arregla ni mandrake'', Not even Mandrake can fix it, usu. applied to an economic conundrum) (''No soy Mandrake'', I'm not Mandrake Meaning: Explain yourself ''I can't read your mind'')
For small children or young people Colombians normally use to call children, ''chino/a'' (as in Chinese), ''pelao/á'' (a more vague form of the also used ''pelado''), ''sardino/a'' (Spanish for sardines (to imply little fish). In Argentina ''Pendejo'' means small children or somebody very young. (From pendejo=pubic hair, something small) (Note that this word has a completely different meaning in Mexico).
''Juanito'', is an hypocoristic of the name Juan, Juanito is used to refer to a small school age boy, and its usually used in jokes to refer to the smart mouth kid who is the center of the joke. ''Pepito/a'' (little dot) is also used in the context of jokes often, ''Jaimito'' in Argentina.
''Marica'', (faggot), is a placeholder name popular in the Caribbean Region, although its 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 older people for whom one has respect, Don or Doña can be used without a name to refer to someone important, also ''sumercé'' is used in this manner.
Places
Cochinchina, an actual term used to refer to various southern regions in Vietnam, is used commonly to refer to a remote and extremely far place, and most likely non-existential, it is also commonly place after China and at the end in a list of remote places or to mean "here and everywhere" (''aquí, en la China, y en la Conchinchina''). See Cochinchina campaign
''La loma de la mierda'': (Lit. ''The hill of the shit'') A very remote place (Argentina, Vulgar). ''La loma del orto'' (Lit. The hill of the anus) (Also vulgar)
''La concha de la lora'': (Argentina, Vulgar), Lit. The female parrot's vagina) An unspecified, possibly remote place, usually used as an insult, (The speaker commands someone to go there). ''Plumas verdes'' (Green feathers, a more polite euphemism for ''Concha de la lora'')
''Irse al Carajo'' (Argentina, vulgar) To leave, to behave in an unacceptable manner,(i.e. cross the line))
Swedish
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'' (shit) 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 they 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".
Placeholder names in Swedish are colorful: Someplace far away can be called ''Tjotaheiti'' (which is derived from "to Tahiti") or ''Långtbortistan'', ''Farawaystan'', a play on -stan created in the Swedish edition of Donald Duck. ''Häcklefjäll'' is a commonly used as a name for a generic remote village, which is actually a synonym for the Icelandic volcano Hekla.
The common swede is referred to as ''Jan Banan'' ("Banana Ian") or ''Medel-Svensson''. ''Medel'' is Swedish for ''medium'' or ''average'', while Svensson is a common Swedish surname, which is often used to express genericness or mundaneness. Common first names used as placeholders are Kalle for boys and Lisa for girls, Anna and Maria for women, Johan and Anders for men.
Turkish
Turkish has many colorful kadigans. "Falan" seems to be borrowed from Arabic, and comes in variations like "filanca" (what’s his name) and "falan filan" (stuff, etc.). "Ivir zivir" is a common kadigan for "various stuff". Kadigans for persons exist in abundance, one example being "Sari Çizmeli Mehmet Aga" ("Mehmet Aga with yellow boots") which generally is used to mean pejoratively "unknown person". In addition, otherwise meaningless words such as "zimbirti" and "zamazingo" are used similarly to the English words "gadget" and "gizmo", but not necessarily related to technology.
Vietnamese
In Vietnamese, ''Nguy?n Van A'' and ''Tr?n Th? B'' are usually used as placeholder names for a male and female, respectively, due to the ubiquity of the family names Nguy?n and Tr?n and middle names Van and Th? in Vietnamese.
Welsh
In Welsh, the word ''bechingalw'' has been used, meaning ''whatdyoucallit'' and ''beth'na'', meaning ''that thing''.
Ubykh
One of the kadigans in Ubykh, zamsjada, may be related to another word meaning ''useless''.
Uzbek
In Uzbek language, among the common kardigans are ''anaqa'' (''that, those''), ''falon'', ''piston'' (''stuff''). And among placeholder personal names are ''falonchi'', ''pistonchi'' (''person who makes stuff'') and Uzbek names ''Eshmat'' and ''Toshmat''. Kardigans 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''.
Yoruba
In Yoruba, Lagbaja and Temedu are the most common placeholder names.
See also
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