What Does the "Q" in John Q. Public Stand For?

[Jim_B]

What does the “Q” in John Q. Public stand for? Is it the same “Q” in John Q. Anonymous? Just wondering…

[Maxxxie]

Beats me… while we’re at it, what does the H in Jesus H. Christ stand for??

Max

[Happy_Lendervedder]

Here’s the scoop on the H. from the Master hisse’f

Happy

[Happy_Lendervedder]

Here’s the scoop on the H. from the Master hisse’f

Happy

[ski]

It stands for Q-Bert, the lovable video game creature with no arms and a big nose.

[GIGObuster]

Somebody may appear with a more reliable source, but after a search, I think it stands for Quincy. Possibly coming from the time of John Quincy Adams.

A credit report site has this hint on how to check for reports:

1. Consistent Styling of Applicant’s (& Spouse’s) Name(s): in areas listed. Note: John Q. Public, not Jonathan Quincy Public.

Can not find more now. The Merriam Webster site reports:

Everyman is not the only term for “a typical or ordinary person.” In the U.S., the names John Doe and Joe Blow are popular, while the British version of the ordinary joe is Joe Bloggs. A typical American is sometimes called John Q. Public; the typical Englishman is known as John Bull; and the typical Frenchman is Johnny Crapaud. It’s easy to see how John Q. Public was coined, and the name John Bull comes from The History of John Bull, an 18th century satire by Scotsman John Arbuthnot. But the origin of Crapaud? Crapaud means “toad” in French, and the French are famous for eating frogs.

Not very helpful in our “Q” question, but my guess is that Quincy was a more common American name when the “John Public” moniker came into use and Quincy was added just to make that fictitious name even more common.

I wonder what middle name is more common now in the USA, maybe that “common” name needs to be updated.

[Satyagrahi]

Actually the “Q” is derived from the classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Since the common man of the masses was assumed to be fairly ugly, it became an “in” joke among police and reporters, etc., to think of him as Quasimodo.

I’ll provide a cite as soon as I can put together a plausible web page proving it.

[smiling_bandit]

I think its more because Quincy sounds like a dull, middle-class name that middle-class moms with big asirations give their kids to sound more important (read: snobbish)

[samclem]

Considering that the term John Q. Public first appears in print in English in 1937, one assumes that Pres. John Adams wasn’t the inspiration.

[dantheman]

Ye Olde English Sayings

John Q. Public – 1) a member of the public or the community : person, citizen 2) the public or the community personified. When John Q. Public made his print debut in the late 1930s, he joined a long line of generic “Johns” in English. About 10 years earlier, “John Citizen” had started appearing in British texts as a nickname for the average joe. Messrs. Public and Citizen are linguistic youngsters compared to “John Doe”; that term has been used for an anonymous or average man since the mid-1600s. Initially, such generic terms were predominantly male, but that changed with the arrival of “Jane Doe” in the 1930s. “Joan Citizen” debuted in the 1940s, but “Jane Q. Public” didn’t find her way into English texts until the mid-1980s. By the way, some think the “Q” was inspired by John Quincy Adams

[samclem]

While the info from the link provided by dantheman is generally reliable about the phrase in question, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t buy in to the Life in the 1500’s crap.

[Qwertyasdfg]

Qwerty, perhaps?

[dantheman]

What “Life in the 1500’s crap”?

[samclem]

dantheman. Nothing personal. When I punch up the cite you provided, the first thing I see is the e-mail forward about LIfe in the 1500’s. It’s a fun read, but has been debunked at snopes and here, I believe. That’s all I meant.

[dantheman]

Oh, no offense taken - was thinking you were referring to the quoted portion.

I’m sure there’s a better answer out there, but I checked Google, Dogpile, and Teoma, and no dice. Drat.

[samclem]

There are, indeed, cites from the OED that John Citizen was used in the 1920’s and early 1930 in Britain in advance of the earliest cite for the US’ John Q. Public.

[dantheman]

I also looked on Bartleby’s, Word Detective, alt.usage.english…