List of placeholder names by language


This is a list of placeholder names in various languages.

Afrikaans

In Afrikaans, dinges, goeters, watsenaam are common placeholders.

Persons

A common placeholder name for a semi-mythological place - much the same as Timbuktu - is Pofadder.
A general term for a far away, remote/rural environment is "Boendoe".

Time

"Van die jaar toet" is often used to indicate an unspecified, long time ago.
"Negentien-voetsek" This often refers to a long time ago and is based on the early 1900s.

Arabic

uses Fulan, Fulana and when a last name is needed it becomes Fulan AlFulani, Fulana AlFulaniyya. When a second person is needed, ʿillan, ʿillana is used. The use of Fulan has been borrowed into Spanish, Portuguese, Persian, Turkish and Malay, as shown below.

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. অমুক omuk can also be a placeholder for 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

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 or таковата can be used in place of a noun, and таковам as a verb. The latter often can have obscene connotations, but it is generally not considered profane.
Placeholder names for people include: Иван, Драган and Петкан ; used in this order. Ivan is the most common Bulgarian name, while the other two are quite old-fashioned. Петър Петров 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, literally "Upper Downhill".
Distant places can be referred to as на майната си, на гъза на географията. Short distance may be referred to as на една плюнка разстояние, на един хуй място.
Time that is never to come is expressed as на Куково лято, на Куков ден , на Върба в сряда.

Catalan

uses the names daixonses / daixonsis and dallonses / dallonsis to refer to any object or person; d'això and d'allò are also used with the same purpose.
The verb fotre or less commonly fúmer or cardar can be used to replace any other verb, though they are most commonly used instead of fer, menjar and posar.
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

uses ' 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. It is also used in hesitant or uncertain speech as an interjection. The word is also used in other languages like Maguindanao, Maranao, Pangasinense, etc., but it is gradually becoming obsolete in Tagalog where the word ' is common.
In some Cebuano areas, for a known person with a name withheld, it uses a Spanish practice of using Fulano.

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 often forms part of a placeholder. It occurs as a prefix of generic nouns, perhaps with an intervening measure word, or substituting people's actual names.
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 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

Ivan Horvat, Hrvoje Horvat or Pero Perić are a few Croatian versions of John Doe. Hrvoje Horvat is used particularly as a typical name for a member of the Croatian nation, since it literally means "Croatey Croatian" in the Croatian language.

Czech

Things

There are several placeholder words for things such as toto, tentononc, udělátko, bazmek, hejble, blbinec etc.

Persons

Jan Novák or Josef Novák for men and Eva Nováková or Marie Nováková for women are Czech versions of John Doe/Jane Doe.

Places

A placeholder name for a distant place is Tramtárie, for a remote village Kotěhůlky or Horní Dolní, for a crazy town Kocourkov etc.
The phrase "kde dávají lišky dobrou noc" refers to a remote and isolated place, like "the middle of nowhere".

Danish

Things

In Danish a common placeholder word is dims, used for small unspecified objects. 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 and grej.

Persons

In common parlance and as a placeholder a variety can be used. Navn Navnesen is an example.
In civil law A, B, C etc. are used. In criminal law T is used for the accused, V is a non-law enforcement witness, B is a police officer and F or FOU is the victim. 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, used for both objects and persons, and sometimes turned into a verb. The diminutive of ding, dingetje 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.
In Flanders, an obsolete object is said to date van de jaren Stillekes or in Dutch zo oud als Methusalem ; van het jaar kruik, referring to Roman times, is less used.

Persons

The equivalent of John Doe for an unspecified person is Jan Jansen, or in vulgar speech Jan Lul; Jan met de korte achternaam is used in the place of Jan Lul to avoid vulgarity. Jan Modaal is the average consumer and Jan Publiek and Jan met de pet the man in the street While "Jan Soldaat" 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. The average couple may be Mieke en Janneke. 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 is a character from a medieval play Elckerlyc en de Dood. It is sometimes used to say any mortal.

Places

Obscure, faraway places are Timboektoe and Verweggistan. Lutjebroek, a real village, is also used in this sense. The fictitious village Bommerskonte 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 is also used for "never". Another version is Als de kalveren op het ijs dansen. This is sometimes combined with Sint Juttemis.
In Brussels Dutch dialect, an unspecified far-ago time is den taaid van de blieke pataten.

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, and is usually used in an aggravated context. Ik heb dat al tig keer geprobeerd!.

English

See Placeholder name.

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. 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, "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 can also be used as a placeholder. A generic object may be called io ajn, or ajno ; the forms ajna and ajne 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, 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.

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 may be". It utilizes the Finnish verb form lie or lienee, meaning " 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 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 Matti Meikäläinen and Maija Meikäläinen, and the relatively less common Anna Malli or Tauno Tavallinen . In official contexts, the initials N.N. 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 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 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, Huitsin-Nevada and Hevonkuusi.

Time

Obscurity in time can be expressed as viidestoista päivä. Tuohikuussa pukinpäivän aikaan refers to an obscure future date. 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 and biljoona. 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, Senjanen, Omanimi and Te. Any weapon, device or piece of equipment is called vekotin. This has actually pointed to the abbreviation VKT, Valtion Kivääritehdas, and referred to light machine gun 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. 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.
A term sometimes used for a black-box component, i.e. one that has a well-defined interface, but whose internal workings are not known and/or of no interest, is palikka.

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 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. 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
In France:
In French-speaking Belgium, Outsiplou or even Outsiplou-les-Bains-de-Pieds 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, Foun-Tataouine is the generic village and Tataouine-les-Bains is the average city, possibly from the village of that name in Tunisia.
In Quebec:
Far away rural places:
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". 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".
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.

Numbers

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 accompanying name 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.

German

Things

also sports a variety of placeholders; some, as in English, contain the element Dings, Dingens, 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. 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 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 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.

Persons

The German equivalent to the English John Doe for males and Jane Doe for females would be Max Mustermann and Erika Mustermann, respectively. For the former, Otto Normalverbraucher is also widely known. Fritz or Fritzchen is often used as a placeholder in jokes for a mischievous little boy, -fritze for a small shop as in Fahrradfritze. In similar vein there is Onkel Fritz.
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. For many years, Erika Mustermann has been used on the sample picture of German ID cards. 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 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, 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 and Jäger Haumichblau as derogatory placeholders for the name of a recruit. In Cologne, Otto 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 , Weitfortistan, Dort, wo der Pfeffer wächst. For towns or villages in the German-speaking world, Kuhdorf or Kuhkaff or just Kaff and Kleinkleckersdorf, Kleinsiehstenich , Hintertupfing/Hintertupfingen or Dingenskirchen ; in Austria Hinterdupfing is also used. Herr X. aus Y. an der Z., which derives from usage in newspapers, is used occasionally. Other terms such as Bad Sonstwo an der Irgend have been suggested. For remote and rural places there is also the term Wo Fuchs und Hase sich gute Nacht sagen. The abbreviation JWD, meaning "very far away", is used for remote towns or suburbs. Staycations are spent on Balkonien or at Bad Meingarten.

Time

Unlikely days are Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag. Anno dazumal, 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 is used like 'umpteen': Das habe ich schon zigmal gesagt!. An unknown ordinal number is was-weiß-ich-wievielte/r/s or drölf. Exponents of 10 are also used as in English.

Greek

In Greek mostly two "official" placeholders for people are used, tade and deina. 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.

Hawaiian Pidgin (English)

In Hebrew, the word זה is a placeholder for any noun. The most popular personal name placeholders are מה-שמו, משה and יוֹסִי for first name, and כהן for last name. However, in ID and credit card samples, the usual name is ישראל ישראלי for a man and ישראלה ישראלי for a woman – similar to John and Jane Doe.
The traditional terms are פלוני and its counterpart אלמוני . The combined term פלוני אלמוני 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 and שמעון, the names of the first- and second-born of the patriarch Jacob's twelve sons.
A placeholder for a time in the far past is תרפפ"ו.
Especially older Ashkenazi often employ the Yiddish placeholders Chaim Yankel and Moyshe Zukhmir. Buzaglo is a somewhat derogative placeholder for a simple lower-class citizen, particularly of Mizrahi descent. 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 to a senior public official and to the simplest ordinary citizen.
The Expression "בוקר טוב, אליהו" refers to someone finally understanding something that has been explained to them, where אליהו is a placeholder for the listener who finally understood the concept.

Hindi

Persons

Ajay and Priya are common first names in Hindi. These two names appear often as placeholder names in primary school text books. While Kumar, Kumari, and Singh are some common second names.
Combined, these will be safe placeholder names to use: "Ajay Kumar", "Priya Singh".

Places

In Hungarian the word izé 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, izés whatchamacallit-ish, izébb or izésebb more whatchamacallit, izésen in a whatchamacallitish manner, izél to whatchamacallit something, izéltet to cause someone to whatchamacallit, izélget to whatchamacallit continually.. 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 or készség.
To name things, Hungarians also use micsoda, hogyhívják or hogyishívják, miafene, bigyó, miafasz.
John Smith is Kovács János or Gipsz Jakab. However these names are not used in official reports. Samples for forms, credit cards etc. usually contain the name Minta János or Minta Kata. 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, 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 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.
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, a single word, and well-known.
Other male names: Joni, and Budi.
Popular female placeholder names: Sinta, Sri, Dewi
Fulan and Fulanah are also often found, especially in religious articles.

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

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 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 or Mac Uí Rudaí. 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 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. By contrast, the term Taig remains a slur in almost every context. Biddy is a female equivalent placeholder name for Irish females.
Also note that the Hiberno-English placeholder names noted above 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, coso, less commonly affare, and even less commonly aggeggio.
Come si chiama is also used for inanimate objects, expecting to be prompted by the listener with the correct word.
Vattelapesca, 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 or a tipo as well as uno. 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, and una, respectively. In the Venice area one can say Piero Pers 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 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 or, more vulgarly, in culo alla luna or in culo ai lupi. The same idea can be expressed by the name of the Sicilian town of Canicattì, as well as by the two regional expressions dove ha perso le scarpe il Signore and dove ha perso la camicia Cristo.

Time

Alle calende greche, un domani, sine die, and other similar expressions mean "never". Ad ogni morte di papa means "very rarely". Il giorno di San Mai, or Il mese del poi e l'anno del mai, or il 30 febbraio means that an event is never going to take place.

Numbers

Placeholders used for numbers are cinquantaquattro, cinquantaquattromila, and diecimila. The suffix –anta is used for ages in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s ; 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.

ICT usage

In information technology, especially in textbooks,

Japanese

In Japanese, naninani 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 can be used for people, and nantoka nantoka as a variant for things. Hoge has been gaining popularity in the computing world, where it is used much like foo and bar. Nyoro nyoro is also a popular placeholder name.
On forms requiring a first and last name, the name Yamada Tarō 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 for forms from Rakuten.
The symbol 〇〇 is used as a general-purpose placeholder, as is chomechome.

Kannada

In Kannada the placeholder name for common man / women is "Aparichita" translates to 'Unidentified', most police reports in Karnataka use this name. Ex. Aparichita Vyakti.. 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" meaning "nameless" are used. Shree Samanya is another famous term used to refer living person in general, which translates to "respectable commoner".

Korean

In Korean, mwomwomwo is used in casual speech. Nugunugu and eodieodi can be heard as well.|
Hong Gildong, the name of a legendary Korean outlaw, is commonly used as a placeholder name in instructions for filling out forms. Amugae is another placeholder name, similar to John Doe.

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 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 nomen nescio, "I don't know the name"; nomen nominandum, "name to be named" ; and non nominatus/nominata, "not named".
Formal writing in 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 or the common surname Bērziņš. As alternative "generalized" names, the male name Pēteris and surname Kalniņš 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..
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 may also be used.

Lojban

The constructed language Lojban uses the series brodV, ko'V and fo'V 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, Petras and more rarely Antanas, 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 is a common placeholder.
Probably the best-known derogatory placeholder name for a village or a rural town is Bezdonys. The name literally means "Farting village" in Lithuanian, although it actually originates with nearby lake Бездонный, meaning "Bottomless" in Russian. Another also well known derogatory placeholder name for a village or city is Kalabybiškis.

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

In Macedonian џиџе džidže means one object, and џиџи-миџи džidži-midži more than one.
Other words used are: ваквото vakvoto, таквото takvoto, онаквото onakvoto, речи-го reči-go, ова-она ova-ona, and ваму-таму vamu-tamu. 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 .
"Mat" or "Mamat" are also used frequently in daily slang but not in official usage.

Malayalam

In the Malayalam language andanum adakodanum 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.
Aatpat Nagar is 'Anytown'.

Moore (Burkina Faso)

Raogo and Poko 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. A placeholder name for the ordinary Norwegian is also Hvermannsen.
In formal legal contexts, Peder Ås and Kari Holm are the generic male and female examples. These are often joined by their adversaries Hans Tastad and Marte Kirkerud, 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 area and most have accounts in Lillevik Sparebank. Some also live in the larger Storby.
A placeholder name for a far away country is Langtvekkistan. 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. A duppeditt is a small and sometimes useless object. Snurrepipperi are similar to duppeditt, usually something slight weird and fancy. Krimskrams, borrowed from German, is a random heap of small items.

Persian

In Persian, for general purposes the word Folān or felān فلان 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 and in slang yārūيارو are used. A generic word that's used for calling anything, regardless of which type, is چيز "thing".

Polish

The abundance of placeholder names appears generally in the spoken variety of the language.

Common nouns

In Polish, the most popular placeholders are to coś, cudo, dynks, wihajster and a general placeholder ten teges or, even more often ten tego, 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 and knefel. For a semi-jocular term equivalent to "contraption" the Russian loan word ustrojstwo 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 or Zacipie which is an equivalent of English shithole. Sometimes, although rarely, Pacanów can also be used 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 szczekają, literally meaning "where dogs bark with their tails ". An unspecified place situated far from the speaker is called Za górami, za lasami. Other terms include Pcim Dolny and Kozia Wólka. 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 meaning "somewhere far away". To say that something takes place in the whole country or is simply widespread, Polish native speakers employ phrases like Od Helu do Tatr, Od Bałtyku do Tatr, the equivalent of "Land's End to John o'Groats" or "from Orkney to Penzance" in UK English or "" in the USA.

People's names

A universal placeholder name for a man is Jan Kowalski ; for a woman, Janina Kowalska is used less often, sometimes with a different first name. A second unspecified person would be called Nowak, 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 is used – an imaginary person can be called Iksiński. Mostly in the spoken language, one can hear the fictional name Pipsztycki. 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. Informally, to describe any unknown person, the phrase taki jeden is in common use.
The military slang term for an unknown person is the acronym HGW, standing for Chuj go wie. Other slang terms include koleś ; facet or demunitive facio with the feminine forms facetka, facia; and typ, typek with its corresponding feminine form typiara recently gaining wider usage. Also idespread are gość with its derived forms gostek and gościu and a new fashionable word ziomal or ziom.

Date and time

A rare placeholder name for a time and date w grudniu po południu is also used. To avoid giving specific time details of a past event, the phrase pewnego razu is quite often employed. When discussing an event which is not actually expected to occur, the phrase na świętego Nigdy is sometimes uttered. An event that may occur in a very distant unspecified future is described as za ruski miesiąc ; also, irregularly recurring events can be said to happen raz na ruski rok. Za króla Ćwieczka 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 ; similarly dziesiąt 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 or od groma are used, not to mention some vulgar terms like w kurwę or od chuja. For very big numbers one sometimes sees the term pierdylion 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 is widespread; sometimes, not only in expressions related to money, one can say z groszami.

Portuguese

Things

Common placeholders for objects in Brazilian Portuguese are treco, troço, bagulho, parada, coisa, trem and negócio, among others. In European Portuguese coiso or cena are often used. In the 2000s, coiso has also been borrowed as slang into Brazilian Portuguese, mainly among the young. Bicho 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, Sicrano and Beltrano, and the corresponding feminines. Não-sei-quê/quem/onde/quando/das quantas are quite used as well. In both countries, João das Couves, Zé das Couves, José dos Anzóis or Zé da Silva are also used, the feminine being Maria. João Ninguém or Zé Ninguém are used for someone who is unimportant.
Tio and Tia can be used to refer to any unspecified male or female. It is also used between friends to call each other.

Places

In European Portuguese, one can use the terms "Cu de Judas" and "Cascos de Rolha" for remote, isolated and/or rural areas, as in "Lá para Cascos de Rolha" or "Ela vive no Cu de Judas". 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" and "Onde Judas perdeu as botas".

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". 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.
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.

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 to which verbal, agentive, or affective suffixes may be added.

Romanian

In Romanian,
Other expressions used include
Placeholders for numbers include zeci de mii, often contracted to j'de mii and also mii şi mii. Diverse colloquial formulas for "a lot" exist, including o căruță, o grămadă, "căcălău" lots of or the poetic "câtă frunză, câtă iarbă".
Cucuieţii-din-Deal is a name for obscure and remote places. La mama dracului or la mama naibii, Unde şi-a-nțărcat dracu' copiii also mean a very remote place. For the same purpose, Romanians use also La Cuca Măcăii and La dracu' in praznic. Other place names may be used as generic placeholders, depending on the speaker's origins.
La paștele cailor, Când o face plopu' pere, Când o zbura porcu' and La Sfântul Așteaptă'' both mean "some day in the indefinite future, or quite likely never".

Russian

Things

In Russian, among the common placeholder names are это самое, штука, ботва, фигня, хреновина, and бред. A term for something awkward, bulky and useless is бандура. A placeholder for a monetary unit is тугрик.

Persons

In Russian, there's a special placeholder personal name имярек which is used to a person whose real name is unknown.
Placeholders for personal names include variations on names Иван, Пётр, and Сидор, such as Иван Петрович Сидоров for a full name, or Иванов 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 is also used as a generic name.
Words like парень, товарищ, бродяга, трудяга, чувак, друг/подруга, молодой человек, девушка, гражданин, уважаемый, дорогой 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 to Russians.
Sed'maya voda na kisele denotes very far relatives.
Dzhamshut is a derogative placeholder for a gastarbeiter from southern FSU countries.

Places

Things

In Slovak, the most common placeholders are oné with its variations like oný and onô or tento 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, or obscene, derived from obscene names for genitalia. Dzindzík and čudlík are used as a placeholder for elements of various devices. It is often used interchangeably with bazmek 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. The most common placeholder name for an unknown man is týpek, meaning "dude". This term is used mostly by young people. Ujo and teta are also commonly used to address unknown adults, mainly by children.

Places

The standard placeholder for a place name is Horná Dolná. It is often used in derogatory fashion to indicate a tiny and remote village. Remote places can be denoted as Tramtária, or v riti. For remote and rural places there are also the terms kde líšky dávajú dobrú noc, na konci sveta or zapadákov or Vyšná Diera pod Sráčom. In fairy tales, za siedmimi horami is commonly used.

Time

When referring to times long gone, keď sa voda sypala a piesok lial is sometimes used, generally in fairy tales. Predpotopný is used as an adjective for ancient or obsolete things or concepts. Time that is never to come is expressed as na svätého Dindy, because there is no such saint as Dindy. The expression keď naprší a uschne is used for the same purpose.
When talking about amounts, X is often used.

Food

Hovno s makom a pretlakom and obzerance s makom or obzerance s čakancami 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 is used.

Somali

Persons

In Somali, Hebel and Hebla 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.

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, 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" can be used to refer to any unspecified male or female. It is also used between friends to call each other.

Places

Tropecientos, veinticatorce, 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 or added fractions. For approximation "tantos/tantas" can be used as in "treinta y tantos" for thirtysomething 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 may translate as "go to hell" or "get lost".
Mexican Spanish speakers use the words chingadera or madre, 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 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 Chilean and Peruvian Spanish the word hue'ón 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 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 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. 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 means a remote and perhaps nonexistent place. Combined with China it means 'everywhere' in the phrase aquí, en la China, y en la Cochinchina.

Central America

In parts of Central America the word chunche is used for any object. El Salvador also uses the word volado to refer to objects.

Argentinian Spanish

Things

Coso or its diminutive cosito is used for a generic physical object, usually replacing a noun when the speaker does not remember its name. Also chirimbolo, pendorcho. Comosellame is also used.
Chucherías: cheap bric-a-brac or jewellery.
Bicho: any animal colloquially.

Numbers

A las mil quinientas : very late.
Cuarenta y quince : jocularly, an indeterminate number.
Quichicientos: a lot, a zillion.

People

La loma de los tomates/del orto/ de la mierda/del carajo is a vulgar phrase for a very remote place.
La concha de la lora : an unspecified, possibly remote place, usually used in the insult "Go to...". A euphemism is Plumas verdes.
Donde el diablo perdió el 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.

Ecuadorian Spanish

Things

A generic or poorly identified thing can be cosa, nota, movida or vulgarly huevada.

People

Juan Pérez or Juan Piguave. 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.
Maricón is used to call the attention of someone you know, but it can also be used in a derogatory tone. Compare broder, ñaño, pana, yunta, and projeshor. They all are variations on the dude theme.
Jefe 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:, 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 is also used.

People

Juan Pérez is the generic man, Pérez being a common surname.
Colombians call small children chino/a, pelao/á, sardino/a.
Juanito 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 is also often used in the context of jokes.
Marica 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 is a vulgar name in Argentina for a very remote place; similarly La loma del orto.

Sri Lanka

People

In Sinhala, a very common informal placeholder name for male is Siripala and for female Champa.

Swati

People

In Swati, a common informal placeholder for a name is nanguzana similar to the English what's his name.

Swedish

Things

has a large vocabulary of placeholders: Sak, grej, pryl, mojäng/moj 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 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 and skräp or krams. Like in English, various words for feces can be used: skit and bajs 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 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..
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."

Places

Placeholder names in Swedish are colorful: Someplace far away can be called Tjotaheiti or Långtbortistan a play on -stan created in the Swedish edition of Donald Duck.

Numbers

A common term for any large or unknown number is femtioelva.

Tagalog

General

In Tagalog 'yung anó 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 or Si ganoón 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 ng mga Hapón" and the even older "Panahón pa ni Matusalém/Mahoma" ". "Siyám-siyám" 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!".

Thai

A popular placeholder name for an unspecified male in Thailand is Somchai literally meaning "manly". Sometimes, a placeholder name of Somsri, for female, is used.
Nai Kor - meaning “Mr. A. “, is also used as a placeholder.

Turkish

has many colorful placeholders. Falan seems to be borrowed from Arabic, and comes in variations like filanca and falan filan. Ivır zıvır is a common placeholder for "various stuff". Placeholders for persons exist in abundance, one example being Sarı Çizmeli Mehmet Ağa 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,... can be used instead of "He said that...". It can also be used as a euphemism in place of a verb; Şey yapmak istemedim 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

uses betingalw, 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, falon, piston. Placeholder personal names include falonchi, pistonchi and the Uzbek names Eshmat and Toshmat. Placeholders for places are tupkaning tagi, katta xolasining uyi.

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 are also used; more specifically Yiddish placeholder names are Chaim Yankel and Moishe Zugmir.
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.