A. N. Other

A. N. Other is a pseudonym used by a person wishing to remain anonymous. It is also used as a placeholder name.

A. N. Other may be known as Anne Other if definitely female, Mr./Mrs. Other, Mr./Mrs. Average (in statistics; also Joe Average), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (especially used in hotels), Mr./Mrs./Miss Blank.

As well as the above examples the person may be defined by what they own or where they spend most of the time, such as Mr. Semi-detached, Mr. Down-the-Mine etc. For past people we talk of Mr. Smith (etc.) of yesteryear, and the opposite is Mr. Smith (etc.) of the future.

If known only by a first name they are usually John if male, Jane if female. There is course Tom, Dick and Harry but these are not applied to one person. Jonny is usually the name of a child (but also John and Jane).

More specialised versions would be Tommy Atkins (used in the First World War) and Walter Plinge (formerly used on theatre programmes).

John Doe and Jane Doe and Fred Bloggs are other examples.

Couples may be known as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Bloggs, Mr. and Mrs. 2.4 Children (from the number of children the average family is supposed to have), and so on.

Jackie Stewart raced as "A.N. Other" early in his career, supposedly because his mother would worry if she knew he was racing cars.

The street A. N. Other lives on may be Any Street, Any Road, Acacia Road or High Street. The most common name for a road in Britain, however, is Station Rd., which is not used.

A. N. Other lives at Anytown or Anyton (this is adapted to Anytown-by-Sea for a seaside town and so on) or Bunting-by-Sea, Power Cable, Nebraska or Auchterturra. Sometimes he just lives in a known big city such as New York or London.

A. N. Other's credit card number is usually 1234 5678 9101 1213.

See also

*List of pseudonyms