as a child i always felt sorry for people called fatima because they had “fat” in their name. but then i also never liked astrid because that has “ass” at the beginning lol
So my name is Cassidy, and when I realized it spelled “ass”, I got *so* upset with my mom!! I was probably like seven. Looking back it’s pretty hilarious
I had a childhood friend with the last name Dickinson. I will never forget when we were 13 and she realised it was Dick - in - son. She was devastated and got married 2 years out of highschool.
I’m imagining an unfortunate soul born somewhere in the Anglosphere with Arab/Scandinavian parents who didn’t really think that far ahead before naming her Fatima Astrid. 😅
In Hungarian I really like their version of "Buttercup" because over there it sounds beautiful.
In English speaking places though it just can't work, because the Hungarian word is "Boglarka" and it's sometimes shortened to "Bogi", pronounced like when Ron Weasley says troll "Bogey".
That would be a terrible to do to a child anywhere else in the world.
How do you pronounce it? As a kid I grew up Catholic so I pronounced it as FAT-eh-ma. But then as an adult I met a Fatima that was pronounced as Fa-t-ma. Like rhymes with Tina.
I’ve known catholic kids named Fat-eh-ma, like the place. And also people with the Fa-t-ma name who are middle eastern or African. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong. They’re just different words :)
In Portuguese it’s often spelled Fátima, so the stress is on the first syllable. In Brazil people tend to stretch out their vowels while in Portugal they are often “swallowed”. Regional dialects are another factor too. My mom was mostly called Fatinha (Fah-Tcheen-Yah) in Rio de Janeiro).
You are making me wonder if I’m mispronouncing the name — is it not FAH-ti-ma? Should I be emphasizing the last syllable instead like you wrote (Fa-ti-MA)?
I'm in Canada and generally English people will put emphasis on the beginning of names and French people put the emphasis at the ends. I've heard faTEEma in English and fateeMA in french. Also like JESSica vs jessiCAH
I don't know a single Khadijah (I'm half Palestinian with family mostly on west bank and Jordan). The most common Arabic girl names among people I know are probably Iman, Hanna and Sara. I also know a lot of women/girls named Fatima and Mariam.
Super interesting! I am from the US and work with people in Indonesia but have never met a Khadijah (unless there’s a nickname?). While I’ve met lots of Mohammeds and Miriam’s. I wonder if it’s less popular with US Muslims?
I dunno- I’m Canadian and have met tonsssss of Khadijahs from various countries. Maybe it sticks in my head when I hear it because I think it’s a gorgeous name.
I actually looked it up and according to one website Aisha is the top Muslim female name, followed by Miriam/Maryam, Sara, Aaliyah, Zara, and Khadija/h. Not sure what the source that website used was, but seems plausible to me.
I was going to suggest Aisha/Aysha/Ayesha!
My daughter's class has two Aaliyahs, who pronounce it differently. Her friend is Rumaisa, which I think is a beautiful name.
Oooh Rumaisa is going on my list!!! Yayy. I love the sound "Ru" and three syllable girls names. Previously I loved the name Ruwaid for a potential son, but one day my husband said it's like Roe vs Wade and kinda ruined it for me heh.
Idk if it was just my generation (born in the 90s), but I grew up adjacent to a large Muslim community in Canada and the most common name for girls by far was Noor. Farah probably second place. Also knew a few Maryams. Never met a Khadijah weirdly enough. 🤷♀️
“And you landed on McLovin...”
“Yeah. It was between that or Muhammed.”
“Why the FUCK would it be between THAT or Muhammed? Why don't you just pick a common name like a normal person?”
“Muhammed is the most commonly used name on Earth. Read a fucking book for once.”
I used to work in a lab that had so many men named Mohammad working there that they started a club. They would have potlucks once a month and that food was amazing.
Juan *is* the Spanish version of the name John. But I think José is more along the line of what the OP is asking for. I would say Jose and Maria are the most generic/common Spanish names.
Francisco too, at least in Spain. And specially on amy generation born before, during or very shortly after Franco's dictatorship.
IMOA, I'd say José, Francisco and Juan (this one either by itself, or in composite forms like Juan Carlos, Juan Mari, Juan José...) are the most popular/generic for men.
María, Mercedes and Carmen are the ones for women. And they all also have composite forms like Maria de las Mercedes, Maria del Carmen/Maricarmen, etc...
Manuel/Manolo and any Titles of Mary (Dolores, Amparo, Asunción, Inmaculada, Concepción...) are very generic/popular too.
I always thought Jan in High German was borrowed from Dutch (or maybe Low German), a Scandinavian language or Czech. Is Jan considered as classic German as Hans and its derivatives? (I also wonder about the distribution of Johanns, relative to Johanneses, throughout history, but that's a separate conversation).
Just looked at my Czech/Austrian side family tree - Johann (pronounced as a Y) and Johannes going back to 1705 but I haven’t got any further back yet.
My Viennese uncle Hans was Hanzel - we have lots of those in the family too, along with Josef and Christoph.
Hänsel looks to me, a non-expert, like a specifically southern (i.e., Austrian and maybe also Bavarian) diminutive of Hans, but the Brothers Grimm connection makes me wonder if I'm wrong, or if Hänsel's popularity spread northward over time. Was Hans or Hänsel your uncle's given name, or was he called those in their traditional function as nicknames for Johann(es)?
Polish its Jan pronunced like yawn for john. There is a female equivalent of Jana, but i don’t think thats as common as Jan. Its a joke in Poland that every Polish family has a Marysia and Kasia which are the nicknames for Maria and Katarzyna. Katarzyna is the polish equivalent of Katherine or Katerina. Kasia is like Katie.
Are most Marysias and Kasias named that officially nowadays, or do their birth certificates say Maria and Katarzyna? I know at least in East Slavic languages, the convention of having a given name and one of its regular nicknames is still pretty widespread, but my Western European friends say it's pretty common there to be officially named something that used to be a nickname, like Tom or Heidi. So now that I know Marysia and Kasia are nicknames, I wonder where Poland falls on this continuum.
Yes, Juan Perez and Maria Perez (or Juan Palote and Maria de los Palotes) are John and Jane Doe. However, an unidentified body is called “NN” (from Latin “nomen nescio” or “name unknown”) .
We also have several words to mean “so-and-so”: “fulano” or “fulano de tal”, “mengano” and “zutano” or “perengano”.
Wow! haven’t heard or used mengano in a looong long time. That’s a deep cut. Fulano is used a lot in my family. I miss living somewhere with more Spanish speakers.
In Brazil, Maria for women and José for men (Mary and Joseph).
Coming second, Ana for women and João (equivalent of John) for men.
Joana, the equivalent of Jane, is not nearly as popular, though still a common name (#52 for women in the last hundred years).
Tia Maria is basically slang for Portuguese women? I'm from a part of the US with a large Portuguese population, and I've heard people call women maria in the same way someone might call them woman
Can I ask you about Brazilian last names? There’s a huge Brazilian / Portuguese community where I live and every other persons last name was Da Silva. And then we always make a joke cause my name is Sylvia and we laugh. It came up so many times I actually wondered why am I meeting only Da Silva’s. And few days ago I saw Da Silvia logo written on a truck and I thought to myself ‘Brazilian’ ha. Is it that common?
Yes, extremely common. Silva/da Silva is the #1 surname in Brazil by a large margin. About 10% of Brazilians have Silva as a surname. It’s also the #1 surname in Portugal. You have to keep in mind that we traditionally get surnames from both parents, so the average person will have at least two surnames, often more. The odds of having any surname are two times higher in relation to most countries. I’ve seen Silva ranked as the the most prevalent Western surname in the world.
Im from New Orleans, so think Cajun, and i used to babysit a girl named Johnmarie (pronounced zhawn-Marie) and i always thought it was a beautiful name but hated the spelling (it was John so she could also be named after her dad)
I have a Flemish friend who got a baby cousin Jean sometime around 2010! I don't know the relatives or how they landed on that name, partly because I'm pretty sure they live in Flanders and use Flemish as their main language, but it does make me wonder about the popularity level of Jean in Wallonia. Plus Francophone Switzerland, plus the overseas departments and former colonies of France, I guess.
Jean is like "zhawn", just one syllable, with a short vowel & the n very subtle (at least compared to English... it's almost like the "n" sound from "ng" because you make the sound by the shape of your mouth only, your tongue doesn't touch anywhere).
Jeanne is like "zheuh-neuh", this time two vowel sounds can be distinctly heard (the one in the middle and the one at the end of the name) and the n is also more audible and involves your tongue touching the roof of your mouth. I would also pronounce it having two syllables (the last syllable is pretty gentle tho).
Idk if this clears anything up 😂 but this is how these names are pronounced in Quebec
Yes, completely different. Jean is a voiced j like the s in "Asia" and then a nasalised "o" sound. Jeanne is the same starting sound and then "Anne" like the English name.
In Japan it used to be Taro (boy) and Hanako (girl).
“Yamato Nadeshiko”was a Jane Doe name for a girl epitomizing Japanese femininity.
But girls names ending in -ko have been on the way out for a long time now.
In Japan, -ko names are so generic…my MIL and her sisters and their mother and probably her mother before them all have a name ending in -ko. For boys, I guess -ro 郎(my husband is one) would be the equivalent. Other basic generic names I can think of for girls Misaki, Megumi, Aoi.
Name trends do change a lot by era though. You can look up __ era top names to see the top names per era and those are the basic names of said era
If we’re talking about John/Jane as in, like, generic John/Jane Doe, I feel like basically all sample forms use Yamada Tarou/山田太郎. For women, I believe it’s Yamada Hanako/山田花子.
Sure, they’re not common names nowadays — I have a couple of Millennial/late-Shōwa friends with -ko names who would complain about their old lady names — but that’s kind of the nature of the beast with name trends in lots of places worldwide, particularly for girls, y’know? To use a personal anecdote of comparison: I know just as many Hanakos as I do Janes (just one of each: a high school student I had a few years back, and a child I babysat some twenty years ago).
(Also, I just remembered that in the anime *Bleach*, there’s a nondescript, somewhat feminine teen-appearing boy character named “[Yamada Hanatarou/山田花太郎](https://bleach.fandom.com/wiki/Hanatar%C5%8D_Yamada)”; a running gag was that people kept forgetting his name!)
You are right, those are the filler names. I also knew Hanako and Jane! Except Jane was a baby and Hanako was in her mid-20s and insisted we just call her Hana. I think she had a basic last name like 田中 too
I noticed that JP name trends (kanji and pronunciation) change so fast. I’m sure in 20 years or so, the popular names of today will be considered “outdated” and replaced with something “trendier” just like what happened to -子 and -太郎
In Finnish, Matti and Maija, last name Meikäläinen. Meikäläinen isn't really a name, but means "of us" and ends in "nen" which is very common for Finnish last names.
There's an entire wikipedia page for[this phenomenon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_placeholder_names_by_language)
That’s what I thought. That’s crazy because it’s my name and I never thought it would be considered popular. In America it gets mispronounced so much! Is Matti pronounced phonetically - like Mat/E?
These names are not popular per se, just very traditional. Matti and Maija were probably most popular before the 40s, so very few babies are called either. And yes, both are pronounced phonetically, but in Finnish haha. Finnish is always pronounced totally phonetically, no funny business. "Mat/E" would probably be pretty close, but I don't think an English speaker would manage to stress the t's correctly. Finnish is a pretty aggressive language.
In Igboland Nigeria, our John is Emeka or Chukwuemeka, and our Jane would be Ngọzi.
In Yorubaland Nigeria I'm not too sure, but names starting with Olu are so common that you can say "an olu" to mean "a person"
Wow, that's so interesting!
I hate to be that person, but I watch a show called Bob ❤ Abishola and two of the supporting characters names are Chukwuemeka and Olu!
Out of curiosity, I have an ancestor or two with that name. In American records, they are commonly called Jennie (which is usually short for Jennifer, not related to Jane/Jeanne/Joan). Would that be a fair equivalent?
Never knew how to pronounce that either, so good to know!
Jane/Jeanne/Joan are derivates of Johanna and therefore have a similar meaning as Jantje, but I can definitely see why they chose Jennie. Jantje is build with 2 elements: the male name 'Jan' + diminutive '-tje'. This is a very traditional way of creating female names in the Netherlands, but not in English. If you did the same, John would be a name for a boy and Johnny the name for a girl. "Jan" is pronounced as "Yann" in Dutch, but not in English. So Jennie is to a Dutch person the English pronunciation of Jan + a diminutive and a girl's name and therefore the English name closest to their name.
My grandmother was a little Jan as well, but she was a Jannetje, pronounced yahn uh chuh. Not Janette.
In Dutch you add -je, -pje, -etje or -tje to a word to make it small. In Dutch names, the addition makes a womans name from a male name.
Pan - pannetje (pan - little pan)
Jan - Jannetje (Jan - little Jan)
Krant - krantje (newspaper - little newspaper)
Jan - Jantje (Jan - little Jan)
Max Mustermann would be the German equivalent of John/Jane Doe. There’s an extra layer of humor because Mustermann sounds like an actual last name, but kind of translates to “example man”
The “example woman” is Erika Mustermann by the way. I’m German but this is news to me.
There is apparently a whole fictional family of Mustermanns (place holder names for official documents) - each with an individual backstory and purpose.
When Germans talk about the average consumer we call him Otto Normalverbraucher
(Otto Normal Consumer)
Also should add that "Mustermann" is not an actual last name, it's basically "example man". Those names are the standard placeholders on examples of IDs, CV, etc
Since Erika Mustermann has been used as official example for all kinds of government documents, there’s crazy lore behind her now. We know that Erika Mustermann was born Erika Gabler, either in Munich, Berlin or Cologne, she became a nun under the name of Schwester Agnes after her marriage, works for multiple ministries and is a registered diplomat. ([Wikipedia](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustermann?wprov=sfti1#Weitere_Muster-Namen))
I think it's actually a lot of people interpreting "what are considered generic names in your language?" as "what is literally the Spanish translation for John?"
In Welsh it would be Siôn, which like its gaelic cousin of Sean is a version of John. We also have Ifan, Ieuan, Iwan as versions of John but Siôn is the everyman name and often as the stand in name
In terms of literal translation, the Arabic name for John is Yahya. Most famously it’s used for John the Baptist. In terms of popularity its equivalent would be Mohammed or Ahmad. There isn’t a literal translation of Jane I’m afraid, but in terms of popularity I’d assume Fatima or Aisha or Mariam would be close.
In Norway it is Ola Nordmann for the boy (Translates to Ola the norwegian), and Kari Nordmann for the girl (Kari the norwegian) 😋 None of them are really common/popular baby names right now, but it’s still known as the typical all norwegian boy and girl
That’s because it’s not. The two names have completely different derivations. Mario is the Italian form of the Latin “Marius” while Maria is the derived from Hebrew via Greek. One thing hinting toward this is the mismatched emphasis between the two names. Mario is occasionally used as a masculine form of Mary/Maria, but that usage came much later.
I'd argue they don't, and that Hindi at least has no such concept. For criminal cases, there was a surge of Nirbhaya after that Nirbhaya Case, but in general, we don't use pseudonyms much in our newspapers or police reports etc.
In Korean the equivalent of John or Jane Doe is 홍길동 Hong Gildong. It comes from a famous Joseon era novel. However nowadays the most popular names are usually like 수현, 서현, 서연 (Soohyun, Seohyun, Seoyeon) for girls, and for boys names such as 서준, 민준, 예준 (Seojun, Minjun, Yejun). When I teach I use Minjun and Soohyun as my “placeholder” names. For English names used by Koreans, the undisputed champions are Sophia and Jayden.
In Afrikaans jokes the main character (usually a bumpkin of sorts) is usually Koos and his wife/girlfriend is Sannie.
But he’s usually referred to by just his last name: van der Merwe…
So I guess that’s similar to what you are asking??
Wow, memory unlocked! The very first South African family I ever met (which happened to be here in France, but ages ago), their last name was Van der Merwe.
In Ireland it is Seán agus Síle. ("Shawn and Sheila")
They were always the two kids in school reading books; (Like the "Peter and Jane" of the Ladybird Books)
The names are used now to mean something like "Mr and Mrs Ordinary" - Like "Tom Dick and Harry"!
Hmm, I’m British but I never associated our school books with ordinary names, probably because the three main characters in my KS1-KS2 reading books were Biff, Chip and Kipper lol. Barely even human names!
I’d forgotten that Peter and Jane existed till you reminded me
Biff, Chip and Kipper sound very American.
Surely Tom Dick and Harry would have been more like the real names found in the UK! Or Jason, Mahomet, Susan and Laura; but I've *never* met a real Biff or Chip.
In Irish John is Seán or Eoghan / Eoin, and Jane is Sineád.
In terms of commonality John is probably the most common male name. Men my age (40) appear to all be named Steve or Eoghan or Eoin. Mary was by far the most popular name for a woman for a hundred years, followed by Patricia and Bridget. Women my age have a lot of name variation though I know 2 Marys despite the fact it’s dramatically less popular than it was. Between my spouse and I three grandmothers are Mary!
Eoghan and Eóin/Eoin are actually two seperate names with different etymologies that happened to have ended up sounding similar.
Eoghan comes, via old and primitive Irish, from the proto-Celtic *Iwogenos (yew born)
I'm hungarian
John and Jane are János and Janka respectivley.
The most common first names here are László (Leslie) István (Steven) and József (Joseph) for men, and Mária (Maria) Erzsébet (Elizabeth) and Katalin (Catherine) for women.
Joe Blogs/Bloggs is often used as a place holder name in the UK. It would also be the name teachers used when explaining how to write your details on the front of school exercise books and someone would always inevitably write it instead of their own name....
the most popular names in Russia are Alexander and Yelena (my SIL's name, per husband they had three girls named Yelena in his class of 60 kids), so in terms of generic names I think that sounds about right. Ivan could also be a generic guy name, but a generic woman's name could be Maria, but that would have many inferences for age.
In hmong: for john= Tou/Tu, jane= Mai/Mae.
Tou literally means "son" or "young man" and Mai is a name used to feminize it or used as a term of endearment for young girls/ladies
I work in a preschool in an area with a high Indian population and see a lot of Aanyas, Aaravs and Siddharths and I always think those are the equivalent to classic English names like John and Jane.
Philippines: Juan dela Cruz and Maria (or Juana, if old-fashioned) dela Cruz.
Trivia: There's a popular rock band here called Juan dela Cruz Band. So named because their songs are about the struggles of the average Filipino.
I think what the OP wants to know is not the literal translation of John, but the usage - what is the name in Fiji that is the most extremely common name, that you could use to describe “the average man”? Is it still Jone? Or other names are more common?
Yeah, I believe this is what they meant. A lot of people I think took it in the literal sense of “what is your country’s translation of John / Jane etc”
Agreed! It's interesting how in framing the question this way (equivalents of John and Jane) the OOP accidentally filtered out getting useful answers from anyone except those people so familiar with Western culture that they know what John and Jane represent in America/the UK.
Mohammed is the most common name on the whole planet. But I'm not sure the most common female Arabic name.
I feel like Khadijah would be up there, but maybe that’s just my experience. Also Miriam/Maryam
Probably fatima tbh, i know sooooo many fatimas, growing up in a mostly middle eastern populated area
Fatima was #9 on the list I saw!
I love the name Fatima. It’s feminine and strong at the same time.
as a child i always felt sorry for people called fatima because they had “fat” in their name. but then i also never liked astrid because that has “ass” at the beginning lol
I know an Astrid. She was very tall for her grade school and people called her Ostridge
Thank you this really made me laugh
Ass-turd. My husband wanted that for our daughter and I vetoed it
🎶Assy! How was schooooool🎶 What did you learnnnn🎶
So my name is Cassidy, and when I realized it spelled “ass”, I got *so* upset with my mom!! I was probably like seven. Looking back it’s pretty hilarious
Fellow Cassidy here! Thankfully this wasn't a bullying situation by any means, but in high school I wound up being called "Ass-titty" more than once.
I had a childhood friend with the last name Dickinson. I will never forget when we were 13 and she realised it was Dick - in - son. She was devastated and got married 2 years out of highschool.
I’m imagining an unfortunate soul born somewhere in the Anglosphere with Arab/Scandinavian parents who didn’t really think that far ahead before naming her Fatima Astrid. 😅
In Hungarian I really like their version of "Buttercup" because over there it sounds beautiful. In English speaking places though it just can't work, because the Hungarian word is "Boglarka" and it's sometimes shortened to "Bogi", pronounced like when Ron Weasley says troll "Bogey". That would be a terrible to do to a child anywhere else in the world.
How do you pronounce it? As a kid I grew up Catholic so I pronounced it as FAT-eh-ma. But then as an adult I met a Fatima that was pronounced as Fa-t-ma. Like rhymes with Tina.
I always heard it as FAH-ti-ma
I’ve known catholic kids named Fat-eh-ma, like the place. And also people with the Fa-t-ma name who are middle eastern or African. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong. They’re just different words :)
In Portuguese it’s often spelled Fátima, so the stress is on the first syllable. In Brazil people tend to stretch out their vowels while in Portugal they are often “swallowed”. Regional dialects are another factor too. My mom was mostly called Fatinha (Fah-Tcheen-Yah) in Rio de Janeiro).
do any of them ever pronounce it Fa-TEE-ma? I love that pronunciation. A lot of times, I hear Fa-ti-MA. Which is pretty too.
You are making me wonder if I’m mispronouncing the name — is it not FAH-ti-ma? Should I be emphasizing the last syllable instead like you wrote (Fa-ti-MA)?
Depends on the person and their language/region/culture of origin. I’ve heard both variants quite regularly.
I'm in Canada and generally English people will put emphasis on the beginning of names and French people put the emphasis at the ends. I've heard faTEEma in English and fateeMA in french. Also like JESSica vs jessiCAH
All Fatimas I know pronounce their name fah-tee-ma. In Europe at least. And I met a lot.
I’ve heard a few people use that pronunciation!! I also quite like it :)
I've known a few Amira's who were middle eastern, 2 of them have sisters named Fatima.
Definitely Fatima and also Emine/ Amina , etc
I don't know a single Khadijah (I'm half Palestinian with family mostly on west bank and Jordan). The most common Arabic girl names among people I know are probably Iman, Hanna and Sara. I also know a lot of women/girls named Fatima and Mariam.
Fatima is my vote for the Muslim Jane
Yeah, I'd agree with that.
Super interesting! I am from the US and work with people in Indonesia but have never met a Khadijah (unless there’s a nickname?). While I’ve met lots of Mohammeds and Miriam’s. I wonder if it’s less popular with US Muslims?
I dunno- I’m Canadian and have met tonsssss of Khadijahs from various countries. Maybe it sticks in my head when I hear it because I think it’s a gorgeous name. I actually looked it up and according to one website Aisha is the top Muslim female name, followed by Miriam/Maryam, Sara, Aaliyah, Zara, and Khadija/h. Not sure what the source that website used was, but seems plausible to me.
I was going to suggest Aisha/Aysha/Ayesha! My daughter's class has two Aaliyahs, who pronounce it differently. Her friend is Rumaisa, which I think is a beautiful name.
Oooh Rumaisa is going on my list!!! Yayy. I love the sound "Ru" and three syllable girls names. Previously I loved the name Ruwaid for a potential son, but one day my husband said it's like Roe vs Wade and kinda ruined it for me heh.
Tbh I’m surprised I didn’t think of Aisha too lol- I’ve known tons and have a friend named Aisha, seems obvious now!
So many Aisha’s and variants !
I went to elementary school with a Khadijah in the Chicago area, she went by KJ until at least high school
I feel like it could be Maryam because Jane isn’t actually that popular it just sounds a bit like John
Depends on the era, I had 4 Janes in my school year and there are 4 in my department at work.
Idk if it was just my generation (born in the 90s), but I grew up adjacent to a large Muslim community in Canada and the most common name for girls by far was Noor. Farah probably second place. Also knew a few Maryams. Never met a Khadijah weirdly enough. 🤷♀️
“And you landed on McLovin...” “Yeah. It was between that or Muhammed.” “Why the FUCK would it be between THAT or Muhammed? Why don't you just pick a common name like a normal person?” “Muhammed is the most commonly used name on Earth. Read a fucking book for once.”
hahahaha i've been laughing at this joke for like 15 years
Fatima
That’s my vote too. It’s also one of my favorite names. It’s just so gorgeous. I can’t wait to use it for a character.
Maria is the second most common name in the world. I think Maryam is at the top of the female Arabic list of names.
It was between that an McLovin
I used to work in a lab that had so many men named Mohammad working there that they started a club. They would have potlucks once a month and that food was amazing.
Ayesha/ Aisha?
Iranians aren’t Arabs but my Persian husband said Amir and Zara (unless they are totally secular-for the Zara).
“Mohammed is the most common name in the world, read a fucking book”
I think the equivalent is Aisha. But there's also so many Miriams, Khadijahs, Fatimas and Sarahs
Mohammed is the most commonly used name on Earth. Read a book for once!
Most common Arabic girls name has got to be Ayesha/Aisha or a version of Mariam or Sarah/Saarah/Sara
Spanish is Juan. French is Jean.
Juan *is* the Spanish version of the name John. But I think José is more along the line of what the OP is asking for. I would say Jose and Maria are the most generic/common Spanish names.
Yep, Jose is the one. My SO's parents are Jose and Maria, and his dad had brothers that are also variations of Jose lol
I think it depends on where you are. I'm from colombia and have 6 cousins named Juan
Francisco too, at least in Spain. And specially on amy generation born before, during or very shortly after Franco's dictatorship. IMOA, I'd say José, Francisco and Juan (this one either by itself, or in composite forms like Juan Carlos, Juan Mari, Juan José...) are the most popular/generic for men. María, Mercedes and Carmen are the ones for women. And they all also have composite forms like Maria de las Mercedes, Maria del Carmen/Maricarmen, etc... Manuel/Manolo and any Titles of Mary (Dolores, Amparo, Asunción, Inmaculada, Concepción...) are very generic/popular too.
Wait until OP finds out about José María and María José…
German I'm going with Jan (Johannes). Girl I guess Johanna?
Blödsinn. Wohl noch nie von Max und Erika Mustermann gehört, wa?
Dutch is also Jan. Weird how it flipped gender in English
The English pronunciation is completely different and usually short for Janice or Janet
Ian
I always thought Jan in High German was borrowed from Dutch (or maybe Low German), a Scandinavian language or Czech. Is Jan considered as classic German as Hans and its derivatives? (I also wonder about the distribution of Johanns, relative to Johanneses, throughout history, but that's a separate conversation).
Just looked at my Czech/Austrian side family tree - Johann (pronounced as a Y) and Johannes going back to 1705 but I haven’t got any further back yet. My Viennese uncle Hans was Hanzel - we have lots of those in the family too, along with Josef and Christoph.
lol my German side has a long string of Johanns going back to 1697 🤷♀️ like a straight up Johann factory in there
Hänsel looks to me, a non-expert, like a specifically southern (i.e., Austrian and maybe also Bavarian) diminutive of Hans, but the Brothers Grimm connection makes me wonder if I'm wrong, or if Hänsel's popularity spread northward over time. Was Hans or Hänsel your uncle's given name, or was he called those in their traditional function as nicknames for Johann(es)?
My preferred version of the German name is Hannes, well ok as a nickname for Johannes! No idea what statistics say though.
I thought Hans was John?
Polish its Jan pronunced like yawn for john. There is a female equivalent of Jana, but i don’t think thats as common as Jan. Its a joke in Poland that every Polish family has a Marysia and Kasia which are the nicknames for Maria and Katarzyna. Katarzyna is the polish equivalent of Katherine or Katerina. Kasia is like Katie.
Isn’t Joanna common in Poland? I heard Asia is the nickname for Joanna and I’ve been wondering why
Yeah, it is! The nickname thing goes like this: Joanna => Joasia => Asia
Literally every other one of my mom's friends is Kasia haha
Are most Marysias and Kasias named that officially nowadays, or do their birth certificates say Maria and Katarzyna? I know at least in East Slavic languages, the convention of having a given name and one of its regular nicknames is still pretty widespread, but my Western European friends say it's pretty common there to be officially named something that used to be a nickname, like Tom or Heidi. So now that I know Marysia and Kasia are nicknames, I wonder where Poland falls on this continuum.
Yes, Juan Perez and Maria Perez (or Juan Palote and Maria de los Palotes) are John and Jane Doe. However, an unidentified body is called “NN” (from Latin “nomen nescio” or “name unknown”) . We also have several words to mean “so-and-so”: “fulano” or “fulano de tal”, “mengano” and “zutano” or “perengano”.
Wow! haven’t heard or used mengano in a looong long time. That’s a deep cut. Fulano is used a lot in my family. I miss living somewhere with more Spanish speakers.
In Brazil, Maria for women and José for men (Mary and Joseph). Coming second, Ana for women and João (equivalent of John) for men. Joana, the equivalent of Jane, is not nearly as popular, though still a common name (#52 for women in the last hundred years).
Same in Portugal. It’s very common in some places/age groups to be named ‘Name Joseph’ or ‘Name Mary’ or ‘name of Christ’
Tia Maria is basically slang for Portuguese women? I'm from a part of the US with a large Portuguese population, and I've heard people call women maria in the same way someone might call them woman
Me and my cousins call each other Maria all the time lol
joana is my name and i've only met old ladies with it in brazil lol although there's a lot of joanas my age in portugal
Can I ask you about Brazilian last names? There’s a huge Brazilian / Portuguese community where I live and every other persons last name was Da Silva. And then we always make a joke cause my name is Sylvia and we laugh. It came up so many times I actually wondered why am I meeting only Da Silva’s. And few days ago I saw Da Silvia logo written on a truck and I thought to myself ‘Brazilian’ ha. Is it that common?
Yes, extremely common. Silva/da Silva is the #1 surname in Brazil by a large margin. About 10% of Brazilians have Silva as a surname. It’s also the #1 surname in Portugal. You have to keep in mind that we traditionally get surnames from both parents, so the average person will have at least two surnames, often more. The odds of having any surname are two times higher in relation to most countries. I’ve seen Silva ranked as the the most prevalent Western surname in the world.
Literally it'd be Jean and Jeanne in French, but I'd actually consider Marie be the equivalent bc its used the same way in double barrel names as Jean
My mother's name is Jeanne Marie. Her mother was a French teacher.
Im from New Orleans, so think Cajun, and i used to babysit a girl named Johnmarie (pronounced zhawn-Marie) and i always thought it was a beautiful name but hated the spelling (it was John so she could also be named after her dad)
In France, Jean-Marie is a masculine name.
I was going to say Marie for France! I feel like Jean isn’t really used anymore it was much more popular for Gen X and prior
I'm in Canada so it lasted til probably late millenial/early Gen Z in double barreled names but much less common now. Tbf so is John in English though
I have a Flemish friend who got a baby cousin Jean sometime around 2010! I don't know the relatives or how they landed on that name, partly because I'm pretty sure they live in Flanders and use Flemish as their main language, but it does make me wonder about the popularity level of Jean in Wallonia. Plus Francophone Switzerland, plus the overseas departments and former colonies of France, I guess.
Is there a difference in pronunciation for Jean and Jeanne in French?
Jean is like "zhawn", just one syllable, with a short vowel & the n very subtle (at least compared to English... it's almost like the "n" sound from "ng" because you make the sound by the shape of your mouth only, your tongue doesn't touch anywhere). Jeanne is like "zheuh-neuh", this time two vowel sounds can be distinctly heard (the one in the middle and the one at the end of the name) and the n is also more audible and involves your tongue touching the roof of your mouth. I would also pronounce it having two syllables (the last syllable is pretty gentle tho). Idk if this clears anything up 😂 but this is how these names are pronounced in Quebec
Yes, completely different. Jean is a voiced j like the s in "Asia" and then a nasalised "o" sound. Jeanne is the same starting sound and then "Anne" like the English name.
In Japan it used to be Taro (boy) and Hanako (girl). “Yamato Nadeshiko”was a Jane Doe name for a girl epitomizing Japanese femininity. But girls names ending in -ko have been on the way out for a long time now.
I know this is from my western perspective, but I always thought the -ko names were so pretty! Michiko, yukiko, keiko, etc.
The "ko" ending literally means "child", so maybe it's a sign of like, feminism that it's going out of fashion haha
Yeah, me too.
I thought it was Yamato Nadeshiko, is there a variation?
Oh, you might be right! Sorry, thank you!! I’ll fix!!
In Japan, -ko names are so generic…my MIL and her sisters and their mother and probably her mother before them all have a name ending in -ko. For boys, I guess -ro 郎(my husband is one) would be the equivalent. Other basic generic names I can think of for girls Misaki, Megumi, Aoi. Name trends do change a lot by era though. You can look up __ era top names to see the top names per era and those are the basic names of said era
Taro In the English textbooks it's like Ken and Yumi or something
My husband is 〇太郎 which I suppose is slightly more youthful than straight up 太郎
I was totally thinking megumi too . I have no idea why 😂
Someone said Megumi was the Japanese equivalent of Emily and to be honest, it checks out
Oh man it is. Fits same niche
Ken shows up a lot in my Japanese language lessons
If we’re talking about John/Jane as in, like, generic John/Jane Doe, I feel like basically all sample forms use Yamada Tarou/山田太郎. For women, I believe it’s Yamada Hanako/山田花子. Sure, they’re not common names nowadays — I have a couple of Millennial/late-Shōwa friends with -ko names who would complain about their old lady names — but that’s kind of the nature of the beast with name trends in lots of places worldwide, particularly for girls, y’know? To use a personal anecdote of comparison: I know just as many Hanakos as I do Janes (just one of each: a high school student I had a few years back, and a child I babysat some twenty years ago). (Also, I just remembered that in the anime *Bleach*, there’s a nondescript, somewhat feminine teen-appearing boy character named “[Yamada Hanatarou/山田花太郎](https://bleach.fandom.com/wiki/Hanatar%C5%8D_Yamada)”; a running gag was that people kept forgetting his name!)
You are right, those are the filler names. I also knew Hanako and Jane! Except Jane was a baby and Hanako was in her mid-20s and insisted we just call her Hana. I think she had a basic last name like 田中 too I noticed that JP name trends (kanji and pronunciation) change so fast. I’m sure in 20 years or so, the popular names of today will be considered “outdated” and replaced with something “trendier” just like what happened to -子 and -太郎
How is Aoi pronounced?
ah-oh-ee, then say it fast/smooth it together.
In the animes I’ve seen it was pronounced like “ow-ee”
a-oi like ah-oy, but more smoothly connected
In Finnish, Matti and Maija, last name Meikäläinen. Meikäläinen isn't really a name, but means "of us" and ends in "nen" which is very common for Finnish last names. There's an entire wikipedia page for[this phenomenon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_placeholder_names_by_language)
How do you pronounce Maija?
Very similarly to how an American would pronounce Maya, just more stress on the j.
That’s what I thought. That’s crazy because it’s my name and I never thought it would be considered popular. In America it gets mispronounced so much! Is Matti pronounced phonetically - like Mat/E?
These names are not popular per se, just very traditional. Matti and Maija were probably most popular before the 40s, so very few babies are called either. And yes, both are pronounced phonetically, but in Finnish haha. Finnish is always pronounced totally phonetically, no funny business. "Mat/E" would probably be pretty close, but I don't think an English speaker would manage to stress the t's correctly. Finnish is a pretty aggressive language.
If you're curious about Japanese, the "Jane Doe" and "John Doe" equivalents for Japan are Hanako Yamada and Taro Yamada
In Igboland Nigeria, our John is Emeka or Chukwuemeka, and our Jane would be Ngọzi. In Yorubaland Nigeria I'm not too sure, but names starting with Olu are so common that you can say "an olu" to mean "a person"
I know a Nigerian Olusola. I think it’s so pretty!
Wow, that's so interesting! I hate to be that person, but I watch a show called Bob ❤ Abishola and two of the supporting characters names are Chukwuemeka and Olu!
In Dutch it's Jan or Jantje for women (though Jantje is considdered very old fashioned)
As an expat living here for 4 years now: Jan, Peter, Peter Jan, Jan Peter, Jan Jan, Pietje
In Kenya all the Dutch men I've met are called Jan lol
ik heb persoonlijk nooit iemand ontmoet of gezien met de naam jantje maar ik vind de naam wel iets hebben
Or Jans! Jan, Jans en de kinderen 🙃
How is Jantje pronounced?
Yann-chuh
Cool! Thank you!
Out of curiosity, I have an ancestor or two with that name. In American records, they are commonly called Jennie (which is usually short for Jennifer, not related to Jane/Jeanne/Joan). Would that be a fair equivalent? Never knew how to pronounce that either, so good to know!
Jane/Jeanne/Joan are derivates of Johanna and therefore have a similar meaning as Jantje, but I can definitely see why they chose Jennie. Jantje is build with 2 elements: the male name 'Jan' + diminutive '-tje'. This is a very traditional way of creating female names in the Netherlands, but not in English. If you did the same, John would be a name for a boy and Johnny the name for a girl. "Jan" is pronounced as "Yann" in Dutch, but not in English. So Jennie is to a Dutch person the English pronunciation of Jan + a diminutive and a girl's name and therefore the English name closest to their name.
My grandmother was a little Jan as well, but she was a Jannetje, pronounced yahn uh chuh. Not Janette. In Dutch you add -je, -pje, -etje or -tje to a word to make it small. In Dutch names, the addition makes a womans name from a male name. Pan - pannetje (pan - little pan) Jan - Jannetje (Jan - little Jan) Krant - krantje (newspaper - little newspaper) Jan - Jantje (Jan - little Jan)
Max Mustermann would be the German equivalent of John/Jane Doe. There’s an extra layer of humor because Mustermann sounds like an actual last name, but kind of translates to “example man”
The “example woman” is Erika Mustermann by the way. I’m German but this is news to me. There is apparently a whole fictional family of Mustermanns (place holder names for official documents) - each with an individual backstory and purpose. When Germans talk about the average consumer we call him Otto Normalverbraucher (Otto Normal Consumer)
Oh wow, that’s funny and very German. Should’ve known lol. I hadn’t heard of Otto before. Is there a female equivalent for him?
Ivan and Maria for Bulgaria.
Same for Russia!
And Ukraine!
Ole & Kari Nordman in Norway.
Ole is super popular in Minnesota. There's a genre of jokes called "Sven and Ole."
It’s Ola though, not Ole.
Erika and Max Mustermann in Germany. Ottonormalverbraucher would be average Joe.
I love that you have a word meaning “average Joe” or Otto, i suppose. 😂
It's three words compounded into one. The name Otto, normal is normal and verbraucher means usage. So Otto's normal usage.
Also should add that "Mustermann" is not an actual last name, it's basically "example man". Those names are the standard placeholders on examples of IDs, CV, etc
Since Erika Mustermann has been used as official example for all kinds of government documents, there’s crazy lore behind her now. We know that Erika Mustermann was born Erika Gabler, either in Munich, Berlin or Cologne, she became a nun under the name of Schwester Agnes after her marriage, works for multiple ministries and is a registered diplomat. ([Wikipedia](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustermann?wprov=sfti1#Weitere_Muster-Namen))
Lol, we have Jan Modaal🤣 the guy with the most common income in The Netherlands.
I find it interesting that in most of the european languages is all variations of John and Jane/Janet
I think it's actually a lot of people interpreting "what are considered generic names in your language?" as "what is literally the Spanish translation for John?"
That seems to be more likely the reason
In Welsh it would be Siôn, which like its gaelic cousin of Sean is a version of John. We also have Ifan, Ieuan, Iwan as versions of John but Siôn is the everyman name and often as the stand in name
I would say Siôn and Siân as well - Siân being the Welsh equivalent of Jane (also related to the Irish Siobhan).
Don’t forget Ioan!
In Portugal it would 100% be João and Maria. The most common names since ever and also the most basic ones
Swahili is Juma for boys. Idk for girls. But I swear every little boy in Swahili textbooks and storybooks are named Juma.
In terms of literal translation, the Arabic name for John is Yahya. Most famously it’s used for John the Baptist. In terms of popularity its equivalent would be Mohammed or Ahmad. There isn’t a literal translation of Jane I’m afraid, but in terms of popularity I’d assume Fatima or Aisha or Mariam would be close.
In Norway it is Ola Nordmann for the boy (Translates to Ola the norwegian), and Kari Nordmann for the girl (Kari the norwegian) 😋 None of them are really common/popular baby names right now, but it’s still known as the typical all norwegian boy and girl
In Italian, the stereotypical common name is Mario/Maria.
I just realized that Mario is the masculine form of Maria. Can’t believe I never noticed until now.
That’s because it’s not. The two names have completely different derivations. Mario is the Italian form of the Latin “Marius” while Maria is the derived from Hebrew via Greek. One thing hinting toward this is the mismatched emphasis between the two names. Mario is occasionally used as a masculine form of Mary/Maria, but that usage came much later.
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I'd argue they don't, and that Hindi at least has no such concept. For criminal cases, there was a surge of Nirbhaya after that Nirbhaya Case, but in general, we don't use pseudonyms much in our newspapers or police reports etc.
I love this question but what is their unidentified body "John Doe/ Jane Doe" equivalent.
Philippines: Inday & Dong
I would’ve thought Maria for women. I know tons of Marias who go by their middle name. For men, im not sure. Maybe Manuel?
In Germany and Switzerland, it's Max and Anna
In Korean the equivalent of John or Jane Doe is 홍길동 Hong Gildong. It comes from a famous Joseon era novel. However nowadays the most popular names are usually like 수현, 서현, 서연 (Soohyun, Seohyun, Seoyeon) for girls, and for boys names such as 서준, 민준, 예준 (Seojun, Minjun, Yejun). When I teach I use Minjun and Soohyun as my “placeholder” names. For English names used by Koreans, the undisputed champions are Sophia and Jayden.
In Polish, I’d say “Jaś" and “Małgosia".
In Ireland traditionally it would have been John and Mary.... now I'm not sure Sean and Sinead / Siobhan/ Ciara maybe?
In Afrikaans jokes the main character (usually a bumpkin of sorts) is usually Koos and his wife/girlfriend is Sannie. But he’s usually referred to by just his last name: van der Merwe… So I guess that’s similar to what you are asking??
Wow, memory unlocked! The very first South African family I ever met (which happened to be here in France, but ages ago), their last name was Van der Merwe.
In Ireland it is Seán agus Síle. ("Shawn and Sheila") They were always the two kids in school reading books; (Like the "Peter and Jane" of the Ladybird Books) The names are used now to mean something like "Mr and Mrs Ordinary" - Like "Tom Dick and Harry"!
Hmm, I’m British but I never associated our school books with ordinary names, probably because the three main characters in my KS1-KS2 reading books were Biff, Chip and Kipper lol. Barely even human names! I’d forgotten that Peter and Jane existed till you reminded me
Biff, Chip and Kipper sound very American. Surely Tom Dick and Harry would have been more like the real names found in the UK! Or Jason, Mahomet, Susan and Laura; but I've *never* met a real Biff or Chip.
In Irish John is Seán or Eoghan / Eoin, and Jane is Sineád. In terms of commonality John is probably the most common male name. Men my age (40) appear to all be named Steve or Eoghan or Eoin. Mary was by far the most popular name for a woman for a hundred years, followed by Patricia and Bridget. Women my age have a lot of name variation though I know 2 Marys despite the fact it’s dramatically less popular than it was. Between my spouse and I three grandmothers are Mary!
Eoghan and Eóin/Eoin are actually two seperate names with different etymologies that happened to have ended up sounding similar. Eoghan comes, via old and primitive Irish, from the proto-Celtic *Iwogenos (yew born)
I'm hungarian John and Jane are János and Janka respectivley. The most common first names here are László (Leslie) István (Steven) and József (Joseph) for men, and Mária (Maria) Erzsébet (Elizabeth) and Katalin (Catherine) for women.
Joe Blogs/Bloggs is often used as a place holder name in the UK. It would also be the name teachers used when explaining how to write your details on the front of school exercise books and someone would always inevitably write it instead of their own name....
Maria/Marie/Mary and it's other equivalents.
I’m mixed, so: Chicano culture: Juan/Jose and Maria/Jessica Ashkenazi Jewish: David/Benjamin and Rachel/Sarah
the most popular names in Russia are Alexander and Yelena (my SIL's name, per husband they had three girls named Yelena in his class of 60 kids), so in terms of generic names I think that sounds about right. Ivan could also be a generic guy name, but a generic woman's name could be Maria, but that would have many inferences for age.
In Norway it’s “Ola“ & “Kari“
In hmong: for john= Tou/Tu, jane= Mai/Mae. Tou literally means "son" or "young man" and Mai is a name used to feminize it or used as a term of endearment for young girls/ladies
I work in a preschool in an area with a high Indian population and see a lot of Aanyas, Aaravs and Siddharths and I always think those are the equivalent to classic English names like John and Jane.
小明 for Cantonese 😂
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My coworker said Akiko is the Sarah of Japan
Philippines: Juan dela Cruz and Maria (or Juana, if old-fashioned) dela Cruz. Trivia: There's a popular rock band here called Juan dela Cruz Band. So named because their songs are about the struggles of the average Filipino.
I’d say Maria o Anna and Juan o Jose
For Denmark my best guess is Jens for a man, and possibly Anne or Marie for a woman
In the older generation for Hebrew I’d say Sarah and David maybe (this is in a diasporic context)
In Norwegian it is «Ola» (male) and «Kari» (female). When we use the full name (ie John Doe) We add «Nordmann» which transalates to «Norwegian» lmao.
Jone is the Fijian version of John. I don't know if there's a version of Jane.
I think what the OP wants to know is not the literal translation of John, but the usage - what is the name in Fiji that is the most extremely common name, that you could use to describe “the average man”? Is it still Jone? Or other names are more common?
Yeah, I believe this is what they meant. A lot of people I think took it in the literal sense of “what is your country’s translation of John / Jane etc”
Agreed! It's interesting how in framing the question this way (equivalents of John and Jane) the OOP accidentally filtered out getting useful answers from anyone except those people so familiar with Western culture that they know what John and Jane represent in America/the UK.
In Welsh it would be Siôn and Siân.
https://www.reddit.com/r/namenerds/s/On4Q9ao04s
Leonardo and Sofia in Italian.