www.alphadictionary.com

The In Play part of the Good Word always contains one or two rather charming and fanciful names. This lead my thought to John and Jane Doe for unknown persons in (American?) English. Now, I can understand John as pretty common name and Jane as pretty similar to John, b u t w h y Doe?
In my neck of the woods, the equivalent would be NN (or N.N.) which errounously could be read no name but probably is Latin Non Nome (a wild guess).[/u]

John Doe

Jack of nines?

Apo

Thank you.
So, Roe became Doe. I don't get it.

To me, it's not as mysterious as Robert becoming Bob (R---> B)!

Well the Doe (goat) that until recently resided next door has moved on to greener pastures, pardon the pu. that's 2/3 of a pun, making it another pu......* yes, the neihgbors had a goat but are now goatless, Hooray!

Katy
*[pee ewe is what we say when something smells bad.]

Thank you.
So, Roe became Doe. I don't get it.

No, according to the link, in English Law Doe is a ficticious plaintiff, Roe a ficticious defendant. Both names are used for fictitious people.

See Jane Roe and Richard Roe as used in the background of the Roe v. Wade case. Doe and Roe seem to switch sides in the US and become defendant and plaintiff, respectively.

This John Doe article has a list of John Doe names used in various countries.

Australia -- Fred Nurk, Joe Farnarkle
Finland -- Matti and Maija Meikäläinen
Malta -- Joe Borg
Norway -- Ola and Kari Nordmann
Sweden -- Medel-Svensson, Sven Svensson
United Kingdom Fred Bloggs or Joe Bloggs, John Smith

Apparently one will be assimilated in Malta.

In Brazil: José da Silva.

Brazilian dude

I just have to say, whenever I see this thread title ('DOE'), I first think it's a discussion about the Department of Energy...

I don't know why.

-Tim

I think of Homer Simpson.

Brazilian dude

. . . deer and fish eggs . . .

This John Doe article has a list of John Doe names used in various countries.

Australia -- Fred Nurk, Joe Farnarkle
Finland -- Matti and Maija Meikäläinen
Malta -- Joe Borg
Norway -- Ola and Kari Nordmann
Sweden -- Medel-Svensson, Sven Svensson
United Kingdom Fred Bloggs or Joe Bloggs, John Smith

Apparently one will be assimilated in Malta.

Joe Borg is actually a Maltese politician who is now a member of the European Commission

Australia -- Fred Nurk, Joe Farnarkle
Finland -- Matti and Maija Meikäläinen
Malta -- Joe Borg
Norway -- Ola and Kari Nordmann
Sweden -- Medel-Svensson, Sven Svensson
United Kingdom Fred Bloggs or Joe Bloggs, John Smith

No, no, no. "John Doe" could show up in a morgue, "Sven Svensson" could never do that. He could possibly do that in the context: Keep up with the Smiths.
"Medelsvensson" means an average or ordinary man and may be used in a newspaper article to explain life styles with/and statistics, but never among jurists*.
It saddens me that Wikipedia furnished this erroneous information.
But now I understand the difference of Roe vs Doe. Thank you! So now I wonder if Roe wins the litigation, whos going to pay whom if both are unknown to the the officers to the court.

* Jurist is a better word than law people, don't you think?

The good thing with Wikipedia is that you can fix errors. Just go to the page, click on "edit this page" and make the necessary changes.

. . .
No, no, no. "John Doe" could show up in a morgue, "Sven Svensson" could never do that. He could possibly do that in the context: Keep up with the Smiths.
"Medelsvensson" means an average or ordinary man and may be used in a newspaper article to explain life styles with/and statistics, but never among jurists*.
It saddens me that Wikipedia furnished this erroneous information.
But now I understand the difference of Roe vs Doe. Thank you! So now I wonder if Roe wins the litigation, whos going to pay whom if both are unknown to the the officers to the court.

* Jurist is a better word than law people, don't you think?

Ah, but Wikipedia is open for editing and correction. Check the site.

Roe and Doe may not be unknown. In Roe v. Wade, Roe was used to protect the woman's privacy.

A jurist is a legal scholar or specialist in the law, but doesn't necessarily have to be a lawyer or judge.

Agreeing with Iterman, of course, on the general principles in Sweden. I am no law professional, but I have had occasion to use my code of laws book on several occasions. I never saw a proper name, invented or not, but always pronouns. In newspapers, names of people involved in court cases or similar sensitive environments are substituted in a very non-standardized way. No "Svensson", though. "Medelsvensson" rather means "the man in the street", a statistic mean value made flesh, like the Chinese 老百姓, lâobâixìng, old 100 names, "the one hundred most common surnames".

In Roe v. Wade, Roe was used to protect the woman's privacy.

Many thanks! I have seen references to that case umpteen times on the non- and religious boards that I frequent, but until now I have thought that "Roe" was a real name.