Placeholder Name
A “placeholder name” is a name we use to describe a type of person with a particular characteristic. We generally use first names (“Jack” is very popular) but we can also use first names and last names to create the “placeholder”. Placeholder names are very common in informal, spoken English and you’ll hear them a lot in conversations.[1]
Overview[edit]
Placeholder names are ubiquitous in human language and culture, and they exist in many languages around the world. They play a crucial role in communication by allowing individuals to refer to unspecified or hypothetical entities without the need for specific information. These names help streamline conversation, writing, and problem-solving processes.[2]
Generic[edit]
Placeholder names are intentionally overly generic and ambiguous terms referring to things, places, or people whose names do not actually exist; are temporarily forgotten, or are unimportant; or to avoid stigmatization, or because they are unknowable and/or unpredictable given the context of their discussion; to de-emphasize, in which case precise specification thereof is otherwise impossible, or to deliberately expunge.[3]
Linguistic[edit]
These placeholders can refer to individuals (e.g., John Doe, Jane Doe), items (e.g., widgets), locations (e.g., "Main Street"), or places (e.g., America Anytown). They have qualities in common with pronouns. This is due to the fact that the referent must be given by the context. They can, however, be used without a referent, unlike pronouns. The context in which the placeholder occurs is a significant aspect of the message, not what the placeholder officially refers to. In their Dictionary of American Slang (1960), Stuart Berg Flexner and Harold Wentworth employ the term "cardigan" as a placeholder word. They consider "kadigan" to be equivalent to "singamajig." Willard R. Espy is thought to have invented the word, while others, such as David Annis, have claimed credit.[4]
Examples[edit]
Placeholder words exist in a very informal range of English. Formal speech and writing favor words such as accessories, tools, and crafts. These words perform essentially the same function but have different connotations. Most of these words are recorded at least in the 19th century. Edgar Allan Poe wrote a short story titled "The Literary Life of Singham Bob et al." and showed that that particular form was popular in the United States in the 1840s. In Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, W.S. Gilbert has the Senior Executioner sing about the following "little list": ...apologizing compromising politicians, Example: what do you call him: Thing'em-bob, like: never mind, 'St: 'st: 'st: and What's-his-name, and You-know-who: I would like to leave the task of filling in the blanks to you. Some fields have their own specific placeholder terms. For example, "widgets" in economics, engineering, and electronics, "Blackacre" and "John Doe" or "Jane Doe" in law. "X-ray" was originally a placeholder name for an unexplained phenomenon.
References[edit]
