Erika Mustermann

This article is about placeholder names for things, persons, places, time, numbers and other concepts in various languages.

In Afrikaans, dinges ('thing'), goeters ('things'), watsenaam ('what's its name') are common placeholders.

A common placeholder name for a semi-mythological place - much the same as Timbuktu - is Pofadder (a real town). A general term for a far away, remote/rural environment is "Boendoe".

"Van die jaar toet" (from the year "tut") is often used to indicate an unspecified, long time ago.

Arabic uses Fulan, Fulana[h] (فلان / فلانة) and when a last name is needed it becomes Fulan AlFulani, Fulana[h] AlFulaniyya[h] (فلان الفلاني / فلانة الفلانية). When a second person is needed, ʿillan, ʿillana[h] (علان / علانة) is used. The use of Fulan has been borrowed into Spanish, Portuguese, Persian, Turkish and Malay, as shown below.

Bengali uses the universal placeholder ইয়ে iay. Its generally placed for a noun which cannot be recalled by the speaker at the time of his/her speech. ইয়ে iay can be used for nouns, adjectives, and verbs (in conjunction with light verbs). অমুক omuk can also be a placeholder for people.

Bosnian uses the name hepek to refer to any object or person. The word was often used by Top Lista Nadrealista.

Bosnian version of John Smith is Mujo Mujić or Petar Petrović or Marko Marković.

The word limburg is used as a non-existent month, so if something will happen in the month of Limburg, it will never happen.

In Bulgarian, такова (takova, such) or таковата (takovata, lit. the such) can be used in place of a noun, and таковам (takovam) as a verb. The latter often can have obscene connotations, but it is generally not considered profane.

Placeholder names for people include: Иван (Ivan), Драган (Dragan) and Петкан (Petkan); used in this order. Ivan is the most common Bulgarian name, while the other two are quite old-fashioned. Петър Петров (Petar Petrov) is most commonly an ordinary person with no interesting qualities.

...
Wikipedia