Placeholder names are intentionally overly generic and ambiguous terms referring to things, places, or people, the names of which or of whom do not actually exist; are temporarily forgotten, or are unimportant; or in order to avoid stigmatization, or because they are unknowable or unpredictable given the context of their discussion; or to deliberately expunge direct use of the name. Placeholder names for people are often terms referring to an average person or a predicted persona of a typical user.

Linguistic role

These placeholders typically function grammatically as

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

s and can be used for people (e.g. '' John Doe, Jane Doe''), objects (e.g. '' widget''), locations ("Main Street"), or places (e.g. ''Anytown, USA''). They share a property with

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts of speech, but so ...

s because their referents must be supplied by context; but, unlike a pronoun, they may be used with no referent—the important part of the communication is not the thing nominally referred to by the placeholder, but the context in which the placeholder occurs. In their ''Dictionary of American Slang'' (1960), Stuart Berg Flexner and Harold Wentworth use the term ''kadigan'' for placeholder words. They define "kadigan" as a synonym for ''thingamajig''. The term may have originated with Willard R. Espy, though others, such as David Annis, also used it (or ''cadigans'') in their writing. Its

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

is obscure—Flexner and Wentworth related it to the generic word ''gin'' for

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

(as in the ''

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

''). It may also relate to the Irish

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

''Cadigan''.

Examples

Placeholder words exist in a highly informal register of the English language. In formal speech and writing, words like ''accessory'', ''paraphernalia'', '' artifact'', '' instrument'', or '' utensil'' are preferred; these words serve substantially the same function, but differ in connotation. Most of these words can be documented in at least the 19th century.

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

wrote a short story entitled "The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.", showing that particular form to be in familiar use in the United States in the 1840s. In Gilbert and Sullivan's '' The Mikado'', W. S. Gilbert makes the Lord High Executioner sing of a "little list" which includes:

... apologetic statesmen of a compromising kind,
Such as: What d'ye call him: Thing'em-bob, and likewise: Never-mind,
and 'St: 'st: 'st: and What's-his-name, and also You-know-who:
The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you.

Some fields have their own specific placeholder terminology. For example, " widget" in economics, engineering and electronics, or "

Blackacre Blackacre, Whiteacre, Greenacre, Brownacre, and variations are the placeholder names used for fictitious estate (law), estates in land. The names are used by professors of law in common law jurisdictions, particularly in the area of real property ...

" and " John Doe" or "Jane Doe" in law. "

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

" was originally a placeholder name for an unexplained phenomenon.

Companies and organizations

* "Ace" and "Acme" were popular in company names as positioning words in alphabetical directories. They were generic, laudatory of whatever products they were used to promote and appeared at the beginning of most alpha-sorted lists. ("Acme" is a regular English word from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

, meaning summit, highest point, extremity or peak, and thus sometimes used for "best".) A well-known example of "Acme" as a placeholder name is the

Acme Corporation The Acme Corporation is a fictional company, fictional corporation that features prominently in the ''Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote'' animated shorts as a running gag. The company manufactures outlandish product ...

, whose products are often seen in the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons. * "Mom and Pop" (in the United States) are occasional placeholders for the individual owners of a generic small family-owned business * High Street (UK) or Main Street (US) for the business district of a small town or village, often contrasted as a commercial business entity against Threadneedle Street,

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

in the UK or

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in America. * "Advent corporation" is a term used by lawyers to describe an as yet unnamed corporation, while legal incorporation documents are being prepared. In the case of Advent Corporation, founder Henry Kloss decided to adopt this placeholder name as the formal legal name of his new company. * " NewCo" or "Newco" is used in a similar way in the UK for an as-yet-unnamed company. * Fictional brands such as Morley are often used in television and cinema as placeholders to avoid unintended

product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of t ...

. "Brand X" has been used in television advertisements as a generic brand representing any other brand than the one being advertised. * "XYZ Widget Company" has long been used in business and economics textbooks as a sample company. Also used as engraving text example on items such as plaques, trophy plates, etc. Occasionally appears on customizable promotional materials including stationery templates, business cards, advertising signage, cups, backpacks, and other "swag" samples. * "Contoso", "Fabrikam", "Wingtip Toys", "Woodgrove Bank", "Litware", and previously "Northwind" are used as fictional businesses in

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

's training materials and documentation. * " Oceanic Airlines" is used as a

fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

in several films, TV programmes, and comic books, typically when it is involved in a disaster or another event with which actual airlines would prefer not to be associated. * " Octan" is used by The Lego Group as a fictional oil company. Before 1992, they used real life oil companies Shell Oil, Exxon and Esso.

Computing

Placeholder names are commonly used in

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

: * ''Foo'', ''bar'', ''baz'', and ''qux'' (and combinations thereof) are commonly used as placeholders for file, function and variable names. Foo and bar are derived from foobar. * Hacker slang includes a number of placeholders, such as '' frob'' which may stand for any small piece of equipment. ''To frob'', likewise, means to do something to something. In practice it means to adjust (a device) in an aimless way. *

Alice and Bob Alice and Bob are fictional characters commonly used as placeholders in discussions about cryptography, cryptographic systems and Cryptographic protocol, protocols, and in other science and engineering literature where there are several partici ...

, alternatives for ''person A'' and ''person B'' when describing processes in telecommunications; in cryptography Eve (the eavesdropper) is also added. * ''J. Random'' X (e.g. '' J. Random Hacker'', ''J. Random User'') is a term used in computer jargon for a randomly selected member of a set, such as the set of all users. Sometimes used as ''J. Random Loser'' for any not-very-computer-literate user. * ''John'' and ''Jane Appleseed'', commonly used as placeholder names by

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

Domain names

Certain

domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...

s in the format ''

example Example may refer to: * ''exempli gratia'' (e.g.), usually read out in English as "for example" * .example, reserved as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain of the Internet ** example.com, example.net, example.org, an ...

.tld'' (such as ''example.com'', ''example.net'', and ''example.org'') are officially reserved as placeholders for the purpose of presentation. Various example reserved IP addresses exist in

IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the first version of the Internet Protocol (IP) as a standalone specification. It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks. ...

and

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...

, such as in IPv4 documentation and in IPv6 documentation.

Geographical locations

Placeholders such as ''Main Street'', ''Your County'', and ''Anytown'' are often used in sample mailing addresses. '' Ruritania'' is commonly used as a placeholder country. Acacia Avenue has been used as shorthand for an average suburban residential street in Britain. ''Something'' -stan and its demonym ''something''-stani, where ''something'' is often derogatory, is commonly used as a placeholder for a

Middle Eastern The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

country/people or for a politically disliked portion of one's own country/people. As an example, '' Londonistan'' is a placeholder name that evokes the perception of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

's high Muslim population. ''

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census. ...

'', a real city in

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, is often used to mean a place that is far away, in the middle of nowhere, or exotic. ''Kalamazoo'', also a real city, is similarly used to indicate an unknown or far-away place. '' Podunk'' is used in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

for a hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant, a place in the U.S. that is unlikely to have been heard of. Another example is ''East Cupcake'' to refer to a generic small town in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

. Similarly, ''the boondocks'' or ''the boonies'' are used in American English to refer to very rural areas without many inhabitants. In

New Zealand English New Zealand English (NZE) is the variant of the English language spoken and written by most English-speaking New Zealanders. Its language code in ISO and Internet standards is en-NZ. It is the first language of the majority of the populati ...

, '' Woop Woops'' (or, alternatively, ''Wop-wops'') is a (generally humorous) name for an out-of-the-way location, usually rural and sparsely populated. The similar

Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language. While Australia has no of ...

''Woop Woop'', (or, less frequently, ''Woop Woops'') can refer to any remote location, or outback town or district. Another New Zealand English term with a similar use is Waikikamukau ("Why kick a moo-cow"), a generic name for a small rural town. In

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

, '' Bongo Bongo Land'' (or ''Bongo-bongo'' Land) is a pejorative term used to refer to

Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

countries, particularly in Africa, or to a fictional such country.

Legal

* In ancient Roman law, the names '' Aulus Agerius'' and ''Numerius Negidius'' were used to represent the plaintiff and the defendant. The names were both wordplays, respectively meaning " set in motion" and " refuse to pay". The model instruction to judges for civil suits began with ''si paret Numerium Negidium Aulo Agerio sestertium decem milia dare oportere'', meaning "if tappears that Numerius Negidius ought to pay Aulus Agerius ten thousand sesterces...". *In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, '' John Doe'' and the variations ''Jane Doe'' (for females) and ''John Roe'' or ''Richard Roe'' (for a second party): used in legal action and cases when the true identity of a person is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. ''Jane Roe'' was used for the then-unidentified plaintiff ( Norma Leah McCorvey) in one of the most famous legal cases in United States history, '' Roe v. Wade''. These parties also appear in the

legal fiction A legal fiction is a construct used in the law where a thing is taken to be true, which is not in fact true, in order to achieve an outcome. Legal fictions can be employed by the courts or found in legislation. Legal fictions are different from ...

s of the action in

ejectment Ejectment is a common law term for civil action to recover the possession of or title to land. It replaced the old real actions and the various possessory assizes (denoting county-based pleas to local sittings of the courts) where boundary dispu ...

, which was the usual proceeding to quiet title to

real property In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, refers to parcels of land and any associated structures which are the property of a person. For a structure (also called an Land i ...

under common law pleading. * '' Mopery'': used in informal legal discussions as a placeholder for some infraction, when the exact nature of the infraction is not important. * ''

'' and its neighbors ''Whiteacre'', ''Greenacre'', ''Brownacre'', ''Greyacre'', ''Pinkacre'', etc. are used as placeholders for parcels of real property, usually on Law School examinations and the several State Bar Exams. They are sometimes located in ''Acre County'' in the fictional

State of Franklin The State of Franklin (also the Free Republic of Franklin, Lost State of Franklin, or the State of Frankland) was an unrecognized proposed U.S. state, state located in present-day East Tennessee, in the United States. Franklin was created in ...

. * ''Fnu Lnu'' is used by authorities to identify unknown suspects, the name being an

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

for ''First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown''. If a person's first name is known but not the last, or vice versa, they may be called '' eal nameLnu'' or ''Fnu eal name', and an unidentified person may be ''Fnu Lnu''. For example, a former interpreter for the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

was charged as "FNU LNU", and a mute man whose identity could not be determined was arrested and charged with burglary in

Harris County, Texas Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 4,731,145, and was estimated to be 5,009,302 in 2024, making it the List of counties in Texas, most populous cou ...

under the name "FNU-LNU" (charges were later dropped because authorities could not communicate with the man). ''Fnu-Lnu'' conjunctions may also be used if the person has only a single name, as in Indonesian names. The name has been considered a source of humor when ''Fnu Lnu'' has been mistaken for the actual name of a person. * ''X ben X'' (, or ) is used in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

by health and judicial authorities in cases where an individual's identity cannot be determined. These cases include amnesiacs, suspects, hospital patients, and homeless people. In 2009, 80,000 abandoned orphans had the placeholder name of ''X ben X'' and 100 unidentified bodies are buried each year in Morocco under this status. * '' Ploni, Almoni,'' or ''Ploni Almoni'' are used in Israel, the names originating in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' same name. * GOMER (Get Out of My Emergency Room) is a name in

medical slang Medical slang is the use of acronyms and informal terminology to describe patients, other healthcare personnel and medical concepts. Some terms are pejorative. In English language, English, medical slang has entered popular culture via television h ...

for any patient who continually uses emergency room services for non-emergency conditions; its use is informal and

pejorative A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hosti ...

. * Element names from the

periodic table The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the elements, is an ordered arrangement of the chemical elements into rows (" periods") and columns (" groups"). It is an icon of chemistry and is widely used in physics and other s ...

are used in some hospitals as a placeholder for patient names, ex. Francium Male.

Military

Often used in example names and addresses to indicate to the serviceman where to put his own details. * ''

Tommy Atkins Tommy Atkins (often just Tommy) is slang for a common soldier in the British Army.Bill Oddie William Edgar Oddie (born 7 July 1941) is an English actor, artist, birder, comedian, conservationist, musician, songwriter, television presenter and writer. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies. A birder since his childhood in Quinton ...

'',

rhyming slang Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhymin ...

on the nickname ''Squaddie''. * In the US Army and Air Force, ''Private'' (or ''Airman'') ''Tentpeg'' and ''Snuffy'' are commonly used in examples (to explain various procedures) or cautionary tales. In the Marine Corps, ''Lance Corporal Schmuckatelli'' serves the same purpose. * In the US Coast Guard, a generic Coast Guardsman is referred to as ''Joe Coastie'' (or ''Jane''). * In the Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines, a hypothetical member who has his act together is ''A.J. Squared-Away''. * In the Canadian Armed Forces, the generic name for a soldier is ''Private'', ''Corporal'', or any other '' ankBloggins'' * In the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, the fictional '' Loamshire Regiment'' is used as a placeholder to provide examples for its procedures such as addressing mail or specimen charges for violations of military law.

Numbers

* ''Umpteen'' is any annoyingly large number, as in the phrase "for the umpteenth time". * Placeholder telephone numbers are often allocated from ranges such as '' 555'' (where +1- rea code555-1212 is reserved in North America for directory assistance applications) to avoid generating misdialled calls to working numbers. In the United Kingdom,

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

has set aside a range of numbers in larger geographic area codes, as well as fictional area code 01632 (0632 having been the code for

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

until replaced by 091 in the 1980s), for dramatic use. * Common placeholders for

postcode A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or numerical digit, digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, inclu ...

s in Canada include A1A 1A1 (a real postal code for Lower Battery Road, St. John's, Newfoundland) and K1A 0B2 ( Canada Post Place in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

). H0H 0H0 is reserved by Canada Post for fictional use (specifically for the mythical Santa's workshop). In the United States, the ZIP Code 90210 (from TV series

Beverly Hills 90210 ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (often referred to as ''90210'') is an American teen drama television series created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling via his production company Spelling Television. The series ran for 10 seasons on Fo ...

) is frequently used. Numeric codes with repeated or sequential digits like 12345 (a

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

plant in

Schenectady, New York Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

), or 99999-9999 (unused but in a prefix range for the vicinity of Ketchikan, Alaska) may also appear. 00000, which lies in an unused prefix range, can be used without confusion. * In computing, some magic numbers (and other uses of hexadecimal numbers) apply hexspeak to create memorable hexadecimal values, such as .

People

* Hudjefa and Sedjes ("omitted" or "missing"), used by ancient Egyptian scribes when copying illegible pharaohs' names. * Joe Bloggs * John / Jane Doe * John Q. Public * Joe Schmoe * Tom, Dick and Harry * John Smith / Jane Smith * So-and-so * What's-their-name or what's-their-face, for a person whose name is momentarily forgotten ** Examples (declension): what's-their-name, whatstheirname, what's-their-face, whatstheirface, what's-his-face, whatshisface, what's-his-name, whatshisname, what's-her-face, whatsherface, what's-her-name, whatshername *In Japanese, the name Yamada Taro (山田太郎) for men and Yamada Hanako (山田花子) for women.

Science

In chemistry, tentative or hypothetical elements are assigned provisional names until their existence is confirmed by

IUPAC The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...

. Historically, this placeholder name would follow Mendeleev's nomenclature; since the

Transfermium wars The names for the chemical elements 104 to 106 were the subject of a major controversy starting in the 1960s, described by some nuclear chemists as the Transfermium Wars because it concerned the elements following fermium (element 100) on the pe ...

, however, the consensus has been to assign a systematic element name based on the element's atomic number. Examples of these systems in use would be "ekasilicon" (

germanium Germanium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid or a nonmetal in the carbon group that is chemically ...

) and "ununseptium" (

tennessine Tennessine is a synthetic element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Ts and atomic number 117. It has the second-highest atomic number and joint-highest atomic mass of all known elements and is the penultimate element of the Period 7 element, 7th ...

) respectively. Similarly, the name " unobtainium" is frequently used for a material of highly desired characteristics which does not exist or which would be prohibitively expensive to mine, procure or synthesize.

References

* Espy, W., ''An Almanac of Words at Play'' (Clarkson Potter, 1979) * Flexner, S. B. and Wentworth, H., ''A Dictionary of American Slang''; (Macmillan, 1960) * Watson, Ian, "Meet John Doe: stand-ins", section 3.7 i
IanWatson.org
''Cognitive Design'', (Ph.D. dissertation,

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

, 2005). {{DEFAULTSORT:Placeholder Name