John Q Public
Typical American nobody
John Q.
Public is a personification of the average American citizen—the ordinary person with no special status or expertise.
The name functions like a legal placeholder (John Doe) but emphasizes typicality rather than anonymity: What does John Q. Public think about the new tax plan?
The Q. adds mock formality.
Variants include John Q.
Citizen and the British John Bull.
- everymanOrdinary representative person
- average JoeUnremarkable common person
- Joe SixpackStereotypical common man
- averageArithmetic mean or ordinary
- citizenLegal national member
ordinary citizen · taxpayer · ordinary · Joe · Jane Doe · man on the street · common · anonymous · faceless · voter · plain folks · mainstream · middle-class · suburbia · white picket fence · working · nine to five · masses
- common namescommon names, Jane, Joe, Bob, Bill
- placeholder peopleJane Doe, average Joe, everyman, Alice, Bob
- national symbolsnational emblem, national seal, national motto, national colors, national tree
- placeholdersplaceholder, bar, blank, dummy, filler
John Q Publiccelebrity
Widely recognized public figure
A-lister · household name · superstar · star · public figure
John Q Publicelite
Superior select group
the powers that be · ruling class · mover and shaker · power broker · the elite
John Q Publicone of a kind
Utterly without equal
standout · original · trailblazer · eccentric · maverick
John, public, publicly, publication, publish, publisher, publican