John Doe & unidentified people

This name somehow popped up a couple of times within a week for me and led me asking the question: Who is John Doe?

This name first popped up when I read in the news about this guy (a John Doe) who had died two years ago but he lay unidentified and unclaimed in the mortuary. They recently discovered who he really was after the newspapers published an earlier article about one month back trying to ask for help in identifying the man who had committed suicide in a vacant house. Funny why I didn't wonder why they were asking who he was if was called John Doe...:P

While watching The Practice yesterday, we saw a story about this guy who committed some embarassing crime and did not want to be identified. He was then called John Doe, which then led me to conclude that John Doe was the name for an unidentified guy. Yes, so I have never come across John Doe this whole time or questioned what it meant because I must have thought it was just somebody.

I decided to find out how John Doe came about and I found it here! In the course of this quest, now I know a whole host of unidentified people, Richard Roe, Jane Doe, John Stiles, Richard Miles, John Citizen and Mary Major. In Chinese, this person would be 陈小明. Hehehe! This whole search does look silly but hey, more knowledge is always good :)