List of placeholder names by language

This article is about placeholder names in languages other than English.

Afrikaans

In Afrikaans, dinges ('thing'), goeters ('things'), watsenaam ('what's its name') are common placeholders.

Arabic

Arabic uses Fulan / Fulana[h] (فلان / فلانة) and when a last name is needed it becomes Fulan AlFulani / Fulana[h] AlFulaniyya[h] (فلان الفلاني / فلانة الفلانية). When a second person is needed, ʿillan / ʿillana[h] (علان / علانة) is used. The use of Fulan has been borrowed into Spanish, Portuguese, Persian, Turkish and Malay, as shown below.

Bengali

Bengali uses the universal placeholder ইয়ে ie (from the Hindi pronoun ye for "this"). ইয়ে ie can be used for nouns, adjectives, and verbs (in conjunction with light verbs). অমুক 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, "такова" (takova, such) or "таковата'" (takovata, lit. the such) can be used in place of a noun, and "таковам" (takovam) as a verb. The latter often can have obscene connotations, but it's generally not considered profane.

Placeholder names for people include: Иван (Ivan), Драган (Dragan) and Петкан (Petkan); used in this order. Ivan is the most common Bulgarian name, while the other two are quite old-fashioned names. Петър Петров (Petar Petrov) is most commonly used to describe an ordinary person with nothing interesting to note about.

A colloquial placeholder name for towns is the railway junction of Kaspichan, which often bears the connotation of a far-off forgotten place. Villages could be referred to as "Горно Нанадолнище" (Gorno Nanadolnishte), literally "Upper Downhill".

Distant places can be referred to as "на майната си" (майна is archaic dialectal for mother, now used as obscenity), "на гъза на географията" (at geography's ass). Short distance may be referred to as "на една плюнка разстояние" (at a spit's distance), "на един хуй място" (at a dick's length).

Time that is never to come is expressed as "на Куково лято" (in Cuco's summer), "на Куков ден" (at Cuco's day) (Cuco is not a human name and therefore there is no such name-day, so the two expressions are quite close in meaning to on the Greek calends or when pigs begin to fly), "на Върба в сряда" (on Palm Sunday in Wednesday).

Catalan

Catalan uses the names daixonses / daixonsis and dallonses / dallonsis to refer to any object or person; d'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 (simplified Chinese: 什么什么; traditional Chinese: 什麼什麼) (literally, "what what") and an unspecified location is nǎlǐ (Chinese: 哪里), literally "where".

The particle mǒu (Chinese: 某) often forms part of a placeholder. It occurs as a prefix of generic nouns (e.g. 某人 "some person"), perhaps with an intervening measure word (e.g. 某一場演出 "a certain show").

Zhang San (simplified Chinese: 张三; traditional Chinese: 張三), Li Si (Chinese: 李四) and Wang Wu (Chinese: 王五) are Chinese placeholder names. Occasionally, Lu Er (simplified Chinese: 陆二; traditional Chinese: 陸二), Zhao Liu (simplified Chinese: 赵六; traditional Chinese: 趙六) and Sun Qi (simplified Chinese: 孙七; traditional Chinese: 孫七) and Wang Ermazi (Chinese: 王二麻子) 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 (Chinese: 王小明) and Chan Tai Man (Chinese: 陳大文), are also used.

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 into "wait forever".

Czech

In Czech, there are several placeholder words for things like toto, tentononc, udělátko (gadget), bazmek, hejble, etc.

For persons, týpek placeholder word is becoming increasingly popular (in slang, among young people, etc.). Where a name is expected, Jan Novák is often used.

The most common placeholder name for a distant place is Tramtárie.

Czechs and Slovaks would also usually understand each others' placeholder words.

Danish

Things

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. Sager, lit. stuff and grej, lit. gear.

Places

Faraway countries are often called Langtbortistan, lit. Farawayistan.

Backwards places in the countryside are called Lars Tyndskids marker, lit. The fields of Lars Diarrhea which is similarly pronounced word play on an earlier form: Lars tøndeskiders marker, lit. The fields of Lars the barrel shitter - a reference to areas in the countryside where Lars the farmer has to relieve himself on a barrel, because there is no sewer system.

The word langtpokkerivold is a placeholder for a place far far away e.g. he kicked the ball langtpokkerivold.

Dutch

Things

In Dutch the primary placeholder is dinges (derived from ding, "thing"), used for both objects and persons, and sometimes turned into a verb (dingesen). The diminutive of ding, dingetje (lit. "little thing" or "thingy") serves as a kadigan for objects when used with an article, and for persons without.

The nonsense word hutsefluts is used as a placeholder for just about any proper name. 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. In Belgian Dutch you can call a small village "'t hol van pluto" (meaning "the hole of pluto").

In Flanders, an obsolete object (or an old fashioned person) is said to date van de jaren Stillekes (from years Gently).

Persons

The equivalent of John Doe for an unspecified (but not an unidentified) person is Jan Jansen ("Jansen" being one of the most common Dutch surnames) 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.

The Dutch name for an unspecified person is sometimes 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. The average couple may be Mieke en Janneke (Molly and Johnny). 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.

Places

Obscure, faraway places are Timboektoe and Verweggistan (lit. "Farawayistan"). In the Netherlands 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.

Time

Sint-Juttemis is used as a nonsensical date, meaning "never", even though it may be derived from a real saint's day. "Als pasen en pinksteren op één dag vallen" ( When Easter and Pentecost fall on the same day ) is also used for "never".

In Brussels Dutch dialect, an unspecified far-ago time is den taaid van de blieke pataten (the time when potatoes were pale blue).

Esperanto

Esperanto has an all-purpose placeholder suffix um, which has no fixed meaning and simply tells that an object or action has something to do with some purpose or object, for instance butonumi ("to button up" or "to press a button"). It has acquired a specific meaning in some compounds, like brakumi, "to embrace", from brako, "arm".

The placeholder suffix was originally devised as a catch-all derivation affix. Once affixes became routinely used as roots and inflected, um became a placeholder lexeme, which would take affixes of its own: umi "to thingummy", umilo "a thingummy tool", umado "thingummying" etc. A common popular derivative is umaĉi (with pejorative suffix -aĉ-), "doing something fishy". The affix-turned-lexeme aĵo "thing" is also arguably a place holder, since it is less specific than the older lexeme objekto. Afero "business" is a lexeme used as an abstract placeholder.

The particle "ajn" (= "any") can also be used as a placeholder. A generic object may be 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 Tagalog, the term "kuwan" can be used to denote any object that cannot be remembered or identified. Enjoys usage amongst older people.

"Yung ano" ("The what") is another placeholder, and it is used mostly by younger people.

People

Placeholders for people include "Juan Dela Cruz", the representative of the everyman, and the negative "Hudas" for people considered treacherous.

"Si ano" (personal singular case marker+"what") is also used to refer to people whose names are temporarily forgotten the speaker.

As in referring to objects, the terms "kuwan" may also be used.

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 wherever", 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.

Meikäläinen means literally "one of us, one of our side", but sounds similar to a genuine Finnish surname, many of which end in "-lainen/-läinen". Sometimes, Totti Teikäläinen (teikäläinen means "one of you people, one of your side") can be used, where a contrast to Matti Meikäläinen is needed.

The names Matti Virtanen and Ville Virtanen is sometimes also used, because they are said to combine the most common first names and surnames; however, they are also real names for this reason.

The common nouns tyyppi "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"), meaning the proverbial person the least knowledgeable of a new technology and therefore the most difficult to adapt to it. 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 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 (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.

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 ("block").

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, which is an old term and is seldom used nowadays.

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.

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.

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).
• Quarante-douze (forty-twelve) and trouze mille (probably short for trente-douze mille, thirty-twelve thousand) are used for random numbers and particularly high random numbers respectively.
• 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).
• Trois fois rien (thrice nothing) is used for a very small amount, as in ça m'a couté trois fois rien (I bought it for a song).
• 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; "de Machin-Chose" to refer to people who carry longish, noble names
• 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.
• Madame Michu is the average homemaker or (when speaking about technology) a relatively unsophisticated user.
• the adjective lambda can be added to any definite noun to give it the meaning of "average": le conducteur lambda (the average driver), le citoyen lambda (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.
• Toto is also a commonly used name in jokes ; when a female character is needed, it is feminized into tata. It is mainly used to evoke a young boy or a naïve person.
• 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 (ჭიჭიკო ბენდელიანი) may be used for the indefinite person, e.g. when one is telling a story about someone which identification is not necessary or does not affect the sense. It is important to use the full name of Chichiko Bendeliani when used singly, as anything else would make the name too specific and lose the placeholder sense. The second metasyntactic variable would be Bichiko (ბიჭიკო). When used together with Chichiko, last names are not necessary. For example:

"Chichiko Bendeliani was crossing the road", or "Chichiko and Bichiko walk into a bar" to begin a joke.

Places

Jandaba is an indefinite placename for an unspecified (and assumed to be remote) location in Georgia. For 50 years Georgian Mameluks governed Afghanistan and had established a few kingdoms in India, which was the most eastern point of Mameluk settlement. Here (in India) there was a great town known as Jeihan Abad ("Town of Shah Jeihan"), which Georgian Mameluks, because of its remoteness and hazardous place had renamed to "Jandaba" which in Arabic means "Hell". This has been incorporated in Georgian language and the phrase in Georgian - "Go to Jandaba", which means godforsaken travelling.Mameluks, the Great Warriors of the Past

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 drawful 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. A generic term used especially when the speaker cannot think of the intended name or word, also used in enumerations analogously to et cetera, is the colloquial schlag-mich-tot (literally "strike me dead", to indicate that the speaker's memory fails him/her).

The German equivalent to the English John Doe for males and Jane Doe for females would be Max Mustermann (Max Specimen) and Erika Mustermann, respectively. For the former, Otto Normalverbraucher(from Otto Normal = regular gasoline), i.e. "Otto Standardconsumer" is also widely known. Fritz or Fritzchen is often used in jokes as a placeholder for a mischievous little boy (little Johnny) In similar vein there is Onkel Fritz (lit. Uncle Fred). There is also Krethi und Plethi or Hinz und Kunz 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 (“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 referring 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-World War II food rationing via the name of a 1948 film character (played by Gert Fröbe), while the name Lieschen Müller became popular in the year 1961 due to the movie Der Traum von Lieschen Müller. Military jargon also includes Jäger Dosenkohl / 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 first names. Bert also had some popularity as a placeholder for names in the past.

For remote or exotic locations, Germans use Timbuktu, Buxtehude, Walachei, (the Wallachia) Dort, wo der Pfeffer wächst (There, where the pepper grows), as is also known in the English language. For towns or villages in the German-speaking world, Kuhdorf or Kuhkaff or just Kaff(lit. cow village, somewhat derogatory) and Kleinkleckersdorf (lit. Little-Messy-Village), Kleinsiehstenich (lit. Little-you-don't-see-it), Hintertupfing/Hintertupfingen (usually implies 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 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 (lit.: "Somewhere-Else-Spa on the Whatever [river]") have been suggested. For remote and rural places there is also the term Wo Fuchs und Hase sich gute Nacht sagen (lit. where fox and hare tell each other good night) The abbreviation "JWD" (pronounced "yot-veh-day", short for "ganz weit draußen" in a Berlin accent that replaces "G" with "J") means "very far away", it is used for remote towns or suburbs (far from the city center).

For Numbers the numeral suffix zig(as in zwanzig (20), vierzig (40), sechzig (60)) is used similar to umpteen (Ich habe schon zigmal gesagt) (I have told you so for umpteen times), was weiss ich wievielte/r/s(lit. What do I know homanyth) or exponents of 10 are used (similar to English). Unlikely days are Sankt Nimmerleins Tag ( lit. saint neverlet day, a made up saint).

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). E.g. '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)

• Da Kine

Hebrew

In Hebrew, the word זה (zeh, meaning 'this') is a placeholder used in place of any noun. The most popular personal name placeholders are מה-שמו (mahshmo) or 'whatsisname' (thus: 'Tell mahshmo to put the zeh on the zeh'), מֹשֶׁה (Moshe = Moses) and יוֹסִי (Yossi, diminutive form of Joseph) for first name, and כֹהֵן (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. It's also common in Hebrew slang to refer to a person's family members, mostly female ones, for example in sexual connotation (אמא שלך, 'Ima shelcha', 'your mother', or אחותך, 'Achotcha', 'your sister').

The traditional terms are Ploni פלוני and his party Almoni אלמוני (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 פִיזְדֶלוֹך (pizdelokh, formed from the Russian pizda, pussy, and the German and Yiddish Loch = hole). Also quite common is תיז (א)נביא (Tiz (e) Nabi “the prophet’s ass”, from Arabic), עזאזל (azazel, although originally the name of a demon), and again Timbuktu. A kadigan for a time in the far past is תרפפ"ו (pronounced Tarapapu, which somewhat resembles a year in the Hebrew calendar but is not quite one). A snappish remark when someone is asked for the time would be רבע לתיק תק (Reva letik tak, 'a quarter to tick-tack', tick-tack being a synecdoche for a clock).

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').

Hindi

In Hindi, Amuk (as a universal placeholder for place, name or thing, agla (placeholder for a third person), Janu, Jaan for beloved are common placeholders.

People

• Maal - hot young woman - usually derogative similar to English chick
• Patakha (literally firecracker) - hot young woman
• Bhidu - partner, friend, ally, accomplice - similar to English buddy
• Pattha - young man
• Mama (literally maternal uncle) - Cop, also used for fool in some parts.

Places

• Jhumri Telaiya (झूमरी-तलैया): Jhumri Tilaiya a mining town situated in Jharkhand, India was famous owing to its connection with Vividh Bharati, a national radio broadcast. A large number of song requests on the Vividh Bharati programmes would come from Jhumri Telaiya, however many used to doubt its existence, believing it to be an imaginary place.
• Timbuktu is also used in Hindi though not frequently.

Hungarian

In Hungarian the word izé (a stem of ancient Uralic 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), izélődik 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, with given name last, the Hungarian standard).

Place names: Mucsaröcsöge or Csajágaröcsöge (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: νillage 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-known 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".

The generic person can also be called Seán Ó Rudaí ("Sean O'Something", from rud "thing"). Additional persons can be introduced by using other first names and inflecting the family name according to normal Irish conventions for personal names, such as Síle Uí Rudaí ("Sheila O'Something") for a married or elder woman and Aisling Ní Rudaí for a young or unmarried woman.

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".

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, 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.

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 "about time!" and "di buon ora" 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 (なになに, a doubled form of the word nani, meaning what) is often used as a placeholder. It does not necessarily mean a physical object. For example, it is often used to stand in for an omitted word when discussing grammar. Similarly, daredare (だれだれ, doubled form of who) can be used for people, and nantoka nantoka (なんとかなんとか, doubled form of something) as a variant for things. Hoge (ほげ, no literal meaning) has been gaining popularity in the computing world, where it is used much like foo and bar.

nyoro nyoro (literally "~~") is also a popular placeholder name.

The symbol 〇〇 (まるまる, maru-maru, meaning "circle-circle") is used as a general-purpose placeholder.

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 (뭐뭐뭐, a tripled form of 뭐, which is a short form of 무엇, 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.

서울시 여러분 (Seoul City and Everyone), used when the one is asked the time, but do not possess a watch. (The character for hour is the same character for city, and the last character for everyone is the same as the one for minutes)

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 Jonienė for a full female name. The names are often used in the examples of form filling. Also, name "Vardenis Pavardenis" ("Name Lastname") is a common placeholder.

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 Бездонный (Bezdonniy), meaning "Bottomless". Another also well known derogatory placeholder name for a village or city is Kalabybiškis ("Chiseled Penis village").

Macedonian

In Macedonian џиџе [jeeje] - for one, or џиџи-миџи [jeejee-meejee] for more than one (usually small) object is used. Other words used are: ваквото, таквото, онаквото (in English: "the like this", "the like that"), речи-го (in English: "say-it"), ова-она (in English: "this and that"), and ваму-таму (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 Māori 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' (आमाजी गोमाजी कापसे) like 'John Doe' in English. The other generic first names for men include 'Somya-Gomya' (सोम्या-गोम्या) 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 فلان جا (borrowed from the Arabic "Fulan" with the addition of "Ja"). For people the word فلانی or طرف and in slang: يارو is mostly used (all also taken from the Arabic language). A generic word that's used for calling anything, regardless of which type, is چيز (from the old Persian language).

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 (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. For a semi-jocular term 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 (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) szczekają, literally meaning "Where dogs bark with their tails (arses)". The unspecified place situated far from the speaker's place is called Za górami, za lasami (over the hills and far away). Other terms include Pcim Dolny ("Lower Pcim", unexistent quarter of a real town in Małopolska), Kozia Wólka (lit. "Goat's Will", Wola and Wólka being frequent names of Polish villages). The standard place of a Polish joke is Wąchock - a small town in Eastern Poland (voivodship of Kielce). The road leading to any place is sometimes called Droga na Ostrołękę - 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"). 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 (from Baltic Sea to Tatra Mountains), British equivalents being "Land's End to John o'Groats" or "from Orkney to Penzance", American - coast to coast.

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 Iksiński. 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 Nomen Nescio). Informally, to describe any unknown person, the phrase taki jeden (lit. "such a one") is in common use. The military slang term for an unknown person is the acronym HGW, standing for Chuj go wie (lit. A dick knows him). Other slang terms include koleś (lit. a mate, a pal), facet or demunitive facio (a guy, a bloke) with female forms facetka, facia. Widespread are also gostek, gość, gościu (lit. a guest) and a new fashionable word ziomal or ziom (which roughly equates to the American "homie").

Date and time

A rare placeholder name for a time and date (jutro) w grudniu po południu ((tomorrow), in December, in the afternoon) is also used. To avoid giving specific time details of a past event, the phrase pewnego razu (once upon a time) is quit often employed. When discussing an event which is not actually expected to occur, the phrase na świętego Nigdy (a play on the Polish for never, nigdy, in essence St. Never's day) is sometimes uttered. An event that may (or may not) occur in a very distant unspecified future is described as za ruski miesiąc (in a Russian month); also, irregularly (or rarely) recurring events can be said to happen raz na ruski rok (once a Russian year). Za króla Ćwieczka (under king Nail) refers to a very long, indefinite time ago.

Numbers

Any number can be replaced with X. To describe roughly any number between 11 and 20, one can use naście (lit. "teen") The same holds good for numbers between 20 and 100, where the ending dziesiąt (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 kurwę 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 (lit. "and change" or "and some pence (cents)").

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, as well as "puta que pariu" (Whore that gave birth), that is both a placeholder for a remote location and an expletive interjection (like "fuck"). Telling someone to go there ("vá para a puta que pariu") is equivalent of telling someone to "shove it". 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.
• Cutărică, tip (masculine) or tipă (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.
• Drăcie ("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 drăcia dracului?" (lit. "what the devil's devilish [thing]?", similar to "what the hell").

Other expressions used include

• cum-îi-zice / cum-se-cheamă ("what's-it-called"),
• nu-știu-cum/ce/care/cine/când ("I-don't-know-how/what/which/who/when"),
• cine știe ce/cum/care/cine/când" ("who-knows-what/how/which/who/when"), and
• un din-ăla (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 țâșpe mii; from -șpe, an informal numeral suffix equivalent to "-teen" in "sixteen", attached to ț, a Romanian letter sometimes seen as "extra", analogue to the English "a zillion") and also mii şi mii ("thousands and thousands"). Diverse colloquial formulas for "a lot" exist, including o căruță (lit. "a cart-full"), o grămadă (lit. "a pile"), "căcălău" (vulgar; it doesn't mean anything other than "(really) lots of (smth.)"; it sounds both scatological and augumentative in Romanian; comparable with "shit-load") or the poetic "câtă frunză, câtă iarbă" (lit. "as many leaves and blades of grass", referring to a large number of people).

Cucuieţii-din-Deal is a name for obscure and remote places. La mama dracului or la mama naibii ("where the devil's mother dwells", lit. "at the devil's mother") also means a very remote place. For the same purpose, Romanians use also La Cuca Măcăii (an actual remote village in central Romania) and La dracu' in praznic (at the devil's celebration). Other place names may be used as generic placeholders, depending on the speaker's origins.

La paștele cailor (when horses will celebrate Easter), Când o face plopu' pere (when pears will grow in a poplar), Când o zbura porcu' (when pigs will fly) and La Sfântul Așteaptă (on Saint Wait's day) both mean "some day in the indefinite future, or quite likely never".

Russian

Things

In Russian, among the common placeholder names are это самое (this particular [object]), штука (thing; diminutive forms also exist), ботва (leafy tops of root vegetables), фигня (crud) and хуйня (in mat slang; roughly translatable as something dickish), хреновина (same meaning as the previous one, but slightly less offensive). A term for something awkward, bulky and useless is бандура (bandura, an old Ukrainian musical instrument, big and inconvenient to carry). A kadigan for a monetary unit is тугрик (Tögrög, the monetary unit of Mongolia).

People

In Russian, there's a special placeholder personal name имярек (from Church Slavonic expression Imya Rek meaning having said a name) which is used (sometimes ironically) to a person whose real name is unknown.

Placeholders for personal names include variations on names Иван (Ivan), Пётр (Pyotr/Peter), and Сидор (Sidor), such as Иван Петрович Сидоров (Ivan Petrovich Sidorov) for a full name, or Иванов (Ivanov) for a last name. Василий Пупкин (Vasiliy Pupkin) is also (jokingly) used as a generic name.

Words like парень (guy), товарищ (comrade), бродяга (wanderer), трудяга (working man), чувак (dude), друг/подруга (friend masc./fem.), молодой человек (young man), девушка (young woman), гражданин (citizen), уважаемый (respected one), дорогой (dear) all have their own meaning but may be and are used as second-person kadigans as well.

Places

• One of the most commonly used phrases is у чёрта на куличках (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, Тьмутаракань (Tmutarakan, an ancient Crimean city) is used.
• The capital of the Russian backwoods is Урюпинск (Uryupinsk, a town in central Russia), although recently Бобруйск (Babruysk, a Belarussian city), has gained its popularity in the Russian Internet community.
• Куда Макар телят не гонял ("There, where Makar didn't take calfs"), meaning "far-far away" or "somewhere, you won't like".
• In some occasions in literature (a novel by famous Russian and Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol) unknown places are referred to as ...ское место (featuring a widespread adjective ending ской).
• In music (Zoopark discography) and literature Latin N is sometimes used as a placeholder for the actual name of the site, e.g. город N ("city N").

Obscene

• На хуй, meaning to hell or anywhere out of here (literally: onto a dick)
• В жопу and в пизду meaning deep to hell (literally: into an ass, into a vagina)
• Derogatory placeholder names for a remote and uninteresting town are Мухосранск (Mukhosransk, "Fly's Shit Town").

Dates and times

• После дождичка в четверг ("right after rain on Thursday"), referring to indefinite time in future, or to something that will never happen.
• Когда рак на горе свистнет ("as soon as a crayfish on the next hill whistles" — equivalent of "When pigs fly"), meaning the same as после дождичка в четверг, and being sometimes combined with it.
• Ни свет ни заря ("neither light, nor dawn"), засветло, спозаранку and so on, speaking of the very early time in the morning.
• Во времена царя Гороха ("when Gorokh was the tsar") — a very long, indefinite time ago; prehistorically.

Serbian

• Jugovici (pl.), addressing to Serbs or other "Yugoslav" (members of ex-Yugoslavian ethnic groups)
• Srboje, a Serb

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 people. The most common placeholder for a full personal name is Janko Mrkvička or Jožko Mrkvička (lit. "Johnny/Joe Little Carrot"). Placeholder name for an unknown person, used mostly by young people, is týpek (borrowed from Czech language).

There are numerous expressions meaning "bullshit", that can by interchangeably used as placeholder names for things - these can be either colloquial, derived from names of farm animals (konina, kravina, volovina, somarina etc.), or obscene, derived from obscene names for genitalia (kokotina, chujovina, pičovina). 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.

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). Remote places can be denoted as Tramtária.

Time that is never to come is expressed as na svätého Dindy ("at St. Dindy's day"), because there is no such saint as Dindy (in fact, Dindy isn't a name at all, it just rhymes with nikdy, "never"). An expression keď naprší a uschne ("after it rains and dries out") is used for the same purpose.

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.

Spanish (Europe)

Things

Cacharro is generally used for objects and/or devices around the kitchen. Chisme can be used for any object whose name is unknown or doesn't come to mind, much like English thingy. "Bicho", 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 (Puerto Rico). 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). Fulano de Tal is the equivalent of John Doe.
• 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"), veinticatorce ("twenty-fourteen"), chorrocientos or chorromil are colloquially used for big numbers. "Pico" or "algo" can be added with the meaning of "a little more", e.g. for time ("las cuatro y pico" or "las cuatro y algo" for an undefined time between 4:00 and 5:00) or 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".

Places

El quinto pino (lit. "the fifth pine"), el quinto carajo, la quinta porra or la quinta puñeta are colloquially used to refer to an unspecified remote place. E.g.: Nos perdimos y acabamos en el quinto pino ("We got lost and ended up in the fifth pine") Also, donde Cristo perdió el gorro ("where Christ lost his cap") and donde San Pedro perdió el mechero ("where Saint Peter lost his lighter") E.g.: Trotski fue exiliado a Alma Ata, que está, más o menos, donde Cristo perdió el gorro ("Trotski was exiled in Alma Ata, which is, more or less, where Christ lost his cap")

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. cabrón is used to name a people you don't know or remember, but is mildly offensive, depending of the context.

In Chilean and Peruvian Spanish the word hue'ón (from huevón, from huevo, a euphemism for testicle) is often used when referring to unspecified individuals or friends in a casual context. Also, huevón is considered an insult when used unproperly. The word hue'á (from huevada) is used to refer to unspecified actions or objects. Another group of placeholders is weon (male person, weona (female person) and weá (thing).

Vaina is word commonly used by Dominicans to refer to any object.

Central America

In parts of Central America (e.g. El Salvador and Costa Rica) the word chunche is used for any object. El Salvador also uses the word volado (from volar, to fly) to refer to objects.

Argentinian Spanish

Things

Coso (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, Tchotchke), Pendorcho (Small object, possibly a fastener or small mechanical device). Pirifilar los rembos (To perform a technical sounding action Pirifilar onto devices called rembos)

People

Fulano, Mengano and Sultano. Placeholder names for generic people, usually used in that order if one two or three are needed.

NN, No nominado (Unnamed, used in police reports, famously used for unidentified bodies found during the Dirty War.

Magoya (also, but not as commonly, "Montoto") Non-existent person used sarcastically ("Que te ayude magoya", may magoya help you, meaning: You are on your own)

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)

Ecuadorian Spanish

Things

For a generic thing cosa, nota o huevada is used for things not well-identified. The third expression is not to be used in polite company.

People

Juan Pérez or Juan Piguave (Pérez and Piguave being common surnames, like Smith). N.N. is used when trying to convey the same notion of forensic non-identification that John Doe conveys in the U.S.

Fulano, Mengano and Zutano. Placeholder names for generic people, usually used in that order if one two or three are needed.

For small children or young people, Ecuadorians normally use to call children, pelao/á (a more vague form of the also used pelado).

Maricón (faggot), is used to call the attention of someone you know, but it can also be used in a derogatory tone. Compare broder (from the English brother), ñaño (meaning brother in English too), pana (pal), yunta (good friend), and projeshor (a corruption of the word profesor, meaning teacher, is used exclusively in the coastal provinces of Ecuador). They all are variations on the dude theme.

Jefe (in English boss) is also popular when addressing an unknown middle-aged man.

For older people for whom one has respect, caballero, señora or señorita can be used without a name to refer to someone important.

Places

Conchinchina, is used commonly to refer to a remote and extremely far place, and most likely non-existential. It is also popular to prepend China in a list of remote places or to mean "here and everywhere" (aquí, en la China, y en la Conchinchina).

La casa de la verga: (Lit. The house of the cock), sometimes used like Conchinchina, 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 lost of temper. "Comosellame" is also used.

People

Juan perez (John Doe, Perez being a common surname, like Smith)

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 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 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 (crap) and bajs (poop) are standard, well known local variations are mög, bös and dret. Vadhannuhette and vaddetnuhette correspond to whatshisname and whatchamacallit respectively, except that Swedes use the past tense. Det där du vet means "that thing you know". Den och den (that and that) corresponds to so and so. Gunk may refer to any fairly large quantity of unwanted substance or objects of varied or indeterminate identity, much like the English "junk".

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 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.). "Ivır zıvır" is a common kadigan for "various stuff". Kadigans for persons exist in abundance, one example being "Sarı Çizmeli Mehmet Ağa" ("Mehmet Ağa with yellow boots") which generally is used to mean pejoratively "unknown person". In addition, otherwise meaningless words such as "zımbırtı" and "zamazingo" are used similarly to the English words "gadget" and "gizmo", but not necessarily related to technology.

"Şey" meaning "thing" is used colloquially for an object or an action the person has that second forgotten. "O şey dedi,..." (literally "He said 'thing',...") can be used instead of "He said that...". It can also be used as a euphemism in place of a verb; "Şey yapmak istemedim" ("I didn't want to 'thing'") can mean "I didn't want to make an issue out of it."

Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, Nguyễn Văn A and Trần Thị B are usually used as placeholder names for a male and female, respectively, due to the ubiquity of the family names Nguyễn and Trần and middle names Văn and Thị in Vietnamese.

Welsh

In Welsh, the word bechingalw has been used, meaning whatdyoucallit and beth'na, meaning that thing.

Ubykh

One of the kadigans in Ubykh, zams^jada, 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.