John Doe

John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used in the United States and the United Kingdom when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law enforcement in the United States, such names are often used to refer to a corpse whose identity is unknown or cannot be confirmed. These names are also often used to refer to a hypothetical "everyman" in other contexts, in a manner similar to John Q. Public or "Joe Public". There are many variants to the above names, including John (or Richard)/Jane Roe, John/Jane Smith, John/Jane Bloggs, and Johnie/Janie Doe or just Baby Doe for children. In criminal investigation In other English-speaking countries, unique placeholder names, numbers or codenames have become more often used in the context of police investigations. This has included the United Kingdom, where usage of "John Doe" originated during the Middle Ages. However, the legal term John Doe injunction or John Doe order has survived in English law and other legal systems influenced by it. Other names, such as "Joe Bloggs" or "John Smith", have sometimes been informally used as placeholders for an everyman in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand; however such names are seldom used in legal or police circles in the same sense as John Doe. Well-known legal cases named after placeholders include: the landmark 1973 US Supreme Court decisions regarding abortion: Roe v. Wade ("Roe" being a pseudonym) and Doe v. Bolton (1973) and; the civil cases Doe dem. John Hurrell Luscombe vs Yates, Hawker, and Mudge (1822) 5 B. & Ald. 544 (England), McKeogh v. John Doe (Ireland; 2012) and Uber Technologies, Inc. v. Doe I (California, 2015). Cultural references Use of "John Doe" in the sense of an everyman, includes: The 1941 film Meet John Doe.