John Doe

"Jane Doe" redirects here. For other uses, see Jane Doe (disambiguation) and John Doe (disambiguation).

Four headstones marking the single grave of four unknown people in the Pima County Cemetery, Tucson, Arizona. They are called "John Doe" or "Jane Doe" followed by a number sign (#) and a number. In the same cemetery, the murdered Deanna Criswell was called "Jane Doe 19" for 27 years until she was genetically identified in 2015 by her relatives with help from the FBI and The Doe Network.

John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used in the British and US-American legal system and aside generally in the United Kingdom and the United States when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed.[1][2][3] In the context of law enforcement in the United States, such names are often used to refer to a corpse whose identity is unknown or cannot be confirmed. These names are also often used to refer to a hypothetical "everyman" in other contexts, like John Q. Public or "Joe Public". There are many variants to the above names, including John (or Richard)/Jane Roe, John/Jane Smith, John/Jane Bloggs, and Johnie/Janie Doe or just Baby Doe for children. A. N. Other is also a placeholder name, mainly used in the United Kingdom — which is gender neutral — along side Joe / Jo Bloggs and the now occasional use of the "John" and "Jane Doe" names.

  1. ^ "Twitched Indictment" (PDF). Justice.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
  2. ^ "The People of the State of California v. John Doe" (PDF). Judicial Council of California. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference ireland was invoked but never defined (see the help page).