What's the "Joe Shmoe" of different cultures? Or the "John/Jane Smith"?
What's the "Joe Shmoe" of different cultures? Or the "John/Jane Smith"?
Explanations/etymology also appreciated!
For Joe Shmoe, it means a very average or below average person. It's a derivation of the practice of using "shm-" to dismiss something (eg "Practice shmactice. We're already perfect").
And "John Smith" is meant to be the most average name or person imaginable, so they have the "most common" (citation needed) first and last name as well.
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In the Netherlands there’s “Jan Modaal”, modaal (modal) referring the most commonly occurring value in or peak of a distribution. This name is used often when representing the experience of the most average Dutchman.
It’s especially often used in financial discussions and journalism, like “owning a house is getting further out of reach for Jan Modaal.”
Which correlates nicely with the English expression "your average Joe"!
In Belgium we mostly use Jan met de pet ("Jan with the cap")
We also have the slur of "sjonnie en anita" when talking about lower class, anti social people, "sjonnie" being the man and "anita" the woman. Both are very common names in older generations, less common in younger generations.
Would Jan Lul be relevant to this discussion?
"Older generations" I went to school with several Johnnies so I guess I'm pretty old lol. It's still common to give kids English names to show they are lower class though.
Ingrid en Henk, too, for the run of they mill boomer stereotype