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What's the "Joe Shmoe" of different cultures? Or the "John/Jane Smith"? (lemm.ee)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

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.”

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

Which correlates nicely with the English expression "your average Joe"!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

In Belgium we mostly use Jan met de pet ("Jan with the cap")

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Would Jan Lul be relevant to this discussion?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Ingrid en Henk, too, for the run of they mill boomer stereotype