John Doe

For other uses, see John Doe (disambiguation).

The name John Doe is generally used in the United States as a placeholder name for a male party in a legal action or legal discussion whose true identity is unknown. Male corpses or emergency room patients whose identity is unknown are also known by the name John Doe. A female who is not known is referred to as Jane Doe. A child or baby whose identity is unknown can be referred to as Baby Doe or, in one particular case, as Precious Doe. Additional people in the same family may be called James Doe, Judy Doe, etc. Widely used in the United States of America, though rarely used in other English-speaking countries (with the exception of Canada). The Doe names are often, though not always, used for anonymous or unknown defendants. Another set of names often used for anonymous parties, particularly plaintiffs, are Richard Roe for males and Jane Roe for females (as in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court abortion decision Roe v. Wade). The Oxford English Dictionary states that John Doe is "the name given to the fictitious lessee of the plaintiff, in the (now obsolete) mixed action of ejectment, the fictitious defendant being called Richard Roe". Likewise, the Nuttall Encyclopaedia states that John O'Noakes or John Noakes is a fictitious name for a litigious person, used by lawyers in actions of ejectment. Even outside the specific legal context, the name John Doe is often used in general discourse and popular culture to refer to an unknown person. A famous example is the Frank Capra film Meet John Doe.

Informal names for unknown or unspecified persons in various countries/regions

Different fictitious names are used for unknown or unspecified persons in different countries in an informal context, rather than in a court of law or similar. These names are generally understood to be generic.

John/Jane Doe in popular culture

Books

• A character named crow well mountain juniper (all lowercase) changes his name to John Doe in the book Jpod by Douglas Coupland.
• The antagonist in Lincoln Child's "Utopia"
• The main character in Michael Gruber's "Tropic of Night".
• In Tess Gerritsen's book, Vanish, the name on the drowning victim's hospital wristband is Jane Doe

Comics

• Snoopy (Charlie Brown's dog from the Charles Schulz comic strip Peanuts), in his "world-famous attorney" persona, claimed that "John Doe v. Richard Roe" was his most famous case. The name of this case reverses the usual roles of plaintiff and defendant associated with those names.
• John Doe is a comic, edited in Italy by Eura Editoriale.
• The phonetically similar John Dough was used by the Joker, a DC Comics villain. This pseudonym is notable because in this guise, he was able to convince Snapper Carr, the mascot of the Justice League, to give up the location of their original base, the Secret Sanctuary, prompting a move to the more famous JLA satellite.
• A woman calling herself Jane Doe is another of Batman's foes. She infiltrates her victim's lives and then assumes them, usually murdering them soon after. She was a major player in the limited series Arkham Asylum: Living Hell.

Court cases

• The landmark 1973 Supreme Court abortion case Roe v. Wade gets half of its name from Jane Roe (an anonymous plaintiff) who was later revealed to be Norma McCorvey.
• A Toronto woman, publicly known only as Jane Doe, waged an 11-year court battle against the Toronto Police Service after being raped in 1986, alleging that the police had used her as bait to catch the rapist. She won the case in 1998, and was named Chatelaine's Woman of the Year that year. [1] She published a book about her experience, The Story of Jane Doe, in 2003.

Film

• In the movie Fletch, Irwin Fletcher writes under the name of Jane Doe.
• Meet John Doe is a film directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper.
• Jane Doe is the assumed name of an alien character in Galaxy Quest played by actress Missi Pyle.
• John Doe was the pseudonym of a character in the sixth Nightmare on Elm Street film. He was the last teenager in the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio.
• John Doe Jersey is the name given by the press to the incarnation of God in Dogma.
• Johnny Dough, a play on "John Doe," is Dirk Diggler's rival actor in Boogie Nights.
• Jonathan Doe is the name of the serial killer played by Kevin Spacey in Se7en.
• In the HBO series show, The Wire, "John Doe" appears on the board at a Homicide Unit in the last episode of season 5.
• In Steven Seagal film Hard to Kill, Seagal's character 'Mason Storm', while in a coma, has the name John Doe on his hospital bed.
• In movie Murder by Numbers Sandra Bullock uses Jane Doe to identify a murder victim.
• 1968's Bullitt sees a man murdered under the protection of protagonist Frank Bullitt placed under the name John Doe to suppress news of the man's death reaching Bullitt's superiors.

Music

• John Doe was the stage name of John Duchac, founder of seminal punk rock band X.
• Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach (American rock band) fame used "J. Doe" as his stage name for his side-project band, Fight The Sky.
• "John Doe" is a song from the thrash metal band Testament on their album Demonic.
• "Jane Doe" is a song by hard rock band Mr. Big from their album Hey Man released in 1996.
• "Jane Doe" is a song by symphonic metal band Within Temptation
• "Jane Doe" is a song by Alicia Keys
• "Jane Doe" is a song by Nik Kershaw from the album To Be Frank
• Jane Doe is an album by metalcore band Converge
• The Red Hot Chili Peppers twice refer to Doe, in the song "Midnight" they sing : "Like the fear, that's in the eyes of every Doe | Say it now 'cause John and Jane would like to know" and in "Good Time Boys": "if you don't believe me you can ask John Doe 'cause his heart is made of glory and his voice is made of gold".
• "Johndoe" is a Norwegian rock band.
• "Jane Doe", an American band.
• P.O.D. uses the line, "Dread at the controls, label 'em John Doe" repeatedly in their song "Sounds Like War."
• John Doe is referred to in the song Just Another Victim on the Judgement Night soundtrack.

Television

• John Doe is a 2002 Fox Broadcasting Company series starring Dominic Purcell, currently playing on the SciFi Channel. This short-lived television show is named after the name of the main character, who's a man with extreme knowledge of everything in the world, except his own name. In 21 episodes he tries to discover his name, while working on difficult police cases. The series was aborted after the last (cliffhanger) episode.
• "John Doe" is the title of an X-Files episode (Season 9, Episode 7)
• "John Doe" is the title of a Prison Break episode (Season 2, Episode 14)
• "Baby Boy Doe" is the title of a Family Ties episode (Season 2, Episode 19)
• Many unidentified victims in the crime drama series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (all shows, including spin-offs) are called John and Jane Doe until their ID is found.
• Jane Doe is a series of made-for-TV movies on the Hallmark Channel starring Lea Thompson.
• "Jane Doe" is the leader of the "Squirrel Scouts" in the animated series "Camp Lazlo"; the name is a pun on the fact that she is in fact a female deer.
• "Jane Doe" is the name given to a character who has no memory of her past in Grey's Anatomy.
• "John Doe" is the name given to a character who actually called Tempus in Lois And Clark.
• "Jane Doe" is the name given to Claire Bennet when she "dies" in episode four (Collision) of TV series Heroes.
• "Jane Doe" is the name given to an unknown identity of a murdered victim in the show Bones.
• "John" and "Jane" Doe are often used in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
• "John Dough" is the name used by Swami River to rent a post office box in the Mathnet episode "The Case of the Swami Scam."
• "Jane Doe" is the name given to a unknown victim in NCIS. Ducky kept her cremated remains for 10 years in the morgue.
• "Jane Doe" is the name given to 14 a unknown victims in The Wire. They are found dead in a container can down in the harbour, and that is the starting point for the second season of the series.
• "Jane Doe" is the name given to Angela Martin in The Office (US TV series) series 3 episode 1 The Convention for the room reservation with Dwight Shrute.

Video games

• Jane Doe is the name of an unknown quest character in the computer game Maple Story.
• In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Naked Snake uses the pseudonym "John Doe" when asked for his name by Para-Medic. When Snake asks for her name, Para-Medic sarcastically retorts "Jane Doe".
• In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, assassin Shelly de Killer disguises himself as a Butler, and when asked his name, he replies "John Doe."
• In Twisted Metal: Black, an amnesiac character is named John Doe.
• In Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3, John Doe is the default name present in the naming fields when creating a new pilot.

Fashion

• http://www.Janedoelatex.com : London based clothing company, Jane Doe focused on Latex clothing, started in 2005.

See also

• Everyman
• Legal fiction
• Numerius Negidius
• A. N. Other
• N.N. (Nomen nescio)
• Pseudonym
• John Smith
• John Q. Public
• Alice and Bob
• Keeping up with the Joneses
• Placeholder name
• Alan Smithee
• Jock Tamson's bairns
• Fnu Lnu
• Ola Nordmann
• Hong Gildong