Placeholder name

Placeholder names are names used as placeholder words, i.e., referring to things, places, or people, the names of which or of whom do not actually exist; are temporarily forgotten, or are unimportant; or in order to avoid stigmatization, or because they are unknowable or unpredictable given the context of their discussion; or to deliberately expunge direct use of the name.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] Placeholder names for people are often terms referring to an average person or a predicted persona of a typical user or for an individual whose name is unknown.^[3]^[5]^[6] Placeholder names serve as a "common language" that provide flexibility and clarity when talking or writing about concepts.^[4] Some morphologists "will distinguish between placeholders such as thingummy and placeholder names like John Doe".^[7] In computer programming and printing, placeholder names allow creator to test or visual the end product.^[4]

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Thumb — Placeholder name on an icon for a contact card

Companies and organizations

"Ace" and "Acme" were popular in company names as positioning words in alphabetical directories.^[10] It has been claimed to be an acronym, either for "A Company Making Everything", "American Companies Make Everything", or "American Company that Manufactures Everything".^[11]^[12] ("Acme" is a regular English word from the Ancient Greek ἀκμή, akme meaning summit, highest point, extremity or peak, and thus sometimes used for "best".)^[13] A well-known example of "Acme" as a placeholder name is the Acme Corporation, whose products are often seen in the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons.^[14]

"Oceanic Airlines" is used as a fictional airline in several films, TV programmes, and comic books, typically when it is involved in a disaster or another event with which actual airlines would prefer not to be associated.^[15]^[16]

Computing

Placeholder names are commonly used in computing:^[17]^[18]^[19]

Foo, bar, baz, and qux (and combinations thereof) are commonly used as placeholders for file, function and variable names. Foo and bar are derived from foobar.^[20]
J. Random X (e.g. J. Random Hacker, J. Random User) is a term used in computer jargon for a randomly selected member of a set, such as the set of all users. Sometimes used as J. Random Loser for any not-very-computer-literate user.^[21]

Domain names

Certain domain names in the format example .tld (such as example.com, example.net, and example.org) are officially reserved as placeholders for the purpose of presentation.^[22] The term "test user" is also used as a placeholder name during software tests.^[4]

Geographical locations

Something-stan and its demonym something-stani, where something is often derogatory,^[23] is commonly used as a placeholder for a Middle Eastern or South Asian country/people or for a politically disliked portion of one's own country/people. As an example, Londonistan is a placeholder name that evokes the perception of London's high Muslim population.^[24]

Podunk is used in American English for a hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant, a place in the U.S. that is unlikely to have been heard of. Another example is East Cupcake to refer to a generic small town in the Midwestern United States.^[25]

In New Zealand English, Woop Woops (or, alternatively, Wop-wops)^[26] is a (generally humorous) name for an out-of-the-way location, usually rural and sparsely populated. The similar Australian English Woop Woop, (or, less frequently, Woop Woops)^[26] can refer to any remote location, or outback town or district. Another New Zealand English term with a similar use is Waikikamukau ("Why kick a moo-cow"), a generic name for a small rural town.^[27]

Legal

Fnu Lnu is used by authorities to identify unknown suspects, the name being an acronym for First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown. If a person's first name is known but not the last, or vice versa, they may be called [real name] Lnu or Fnu [real name], and an unidentified person may be Fnu Lnu. For example, a former interpreter for the United States military was charged as "FNU LNU",^[28] and a mute man whose identity could not be determined was arrested and charged with burglary in Harris County, Texas under the name "FNU-LNU" (charges were later dropped because authorities could not communicate with the man).^[29] Fnu-Lnu conjunctions may also be used if the person has only a single name, as in Indonesian names. The name has been considered a source of humor when Fnu Lnu has been mistaken for the actual name of a person.^[30]
X ben X (lit. 'X, son of X', Arabic: إكس بن إكس or سين بن سين) is used in Morocco by health and judicial authorities in cases where an individual's identity cannot be determined. These cases include amnesiacs, suspects, hospital patients, and homeless people.^[31]^[32] In 2009, 80,000 abandoned orphans had the placeholder name of X ben X and 100 unidentified bodies are buried each year in Morocco under this status.^[33]

Medicine

Element names from the periodic table are used in some hospitals as a placeholder for patient names, ex. Francium Male.^[34] Hospitals also use placeholder names for newborn babies.^[35]

Publishing and writing

Placeholder names are used in writing, publishing, and typesetting where there are gaps in the text, document, or data set for an unknown name.^[4] The correct name is usually added once the information is known.^[4]

Science

In chemistry, tentative or hypothetical elements are assigned provisional names until their existence is confirmed by IUPAC. Historically, this placeholder name would follow Mendeleev's nomenclature; since the Transfermium wars, however, the consensus has been to assign a systematic element name based on the element's atomic number.^[36]

Sports

Placeholder identities are often used across multiple sports for a variety of reasons, usually involving an ongoing branding process. Examples include the National Hockey League's Utah Hockey Club, who played their inaugural season under the moniker while developing their permanent identity (ultimately the Mammoth);^[37] the National Football League's Washington Football Team, who played two seasons with the name after switching away from Redskins due to the longstanding name controversy, and before unveiling the Commanders brand;^[38] and the minor-league Pacific Coast League's Oklahoma City Baseball Club, who played one season with the identity after dropping the major-league-affiliate Dodgers name in favor of developing a more unique brand (ultimately the Comets).^[39]

Issues

Examples