doe

Jane Doe

(American)

a woman or girl whose name must be kept secret or is not known, especially in a court of law A former employee, referred to only as Jane Doe, is suing the company for unfair discrimination.

John Doe

(American)

a man or boy whose real name must be kept secret or is not known, especially in a court of law The patient was referred to in court documents as John Doe.

John Doe

1. Also, John Q. Public; Joe Blow; Joe Doakes; Joe Zilch. An average undistinguished man; also, the average citizen. For example, This television show is just right for a John Doe, or It's up to John Q. Public to go to the polls and vote. Originally used from the 13th century on legal documents as an alias to protect a witness, John Doe acquired the sense of "ordinary person" in the 1800s. The variants date from the 1900s. Also see Joe six-pack.

2. Also, Jane Doe. An unknown individual, as in The police found a John Doe lying on the street last night, or The judge issued a warrant for the arrest of the perpetrators, Jane Doe no. 1 and Jane Doe no. 2 . [Second half of 1900s]

John Doe

and Jane Doe (ˈdʒɑn ˈdo)

n. a name used for a person whose real name is unknown. The tag on the corpse said Jane Doe, since no one had identified her. John Doe was the name at the bottom of the check.

Jane Doe

verb

See John Doe

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Csilla	CHEEL-law	Hungarian
ViỆN	-	Vietnamese
Wayland	WAY-lənd, WAY-lən	English
Gustavs	-	Latvian
Young-Sook	yung-sook	Korean
Sewell	['su:əl]