The concept of a hypothetical “common man” named John Q. Public has been used for centuries to represent the beliefs of the average citizen. The name may have been inspired by President John Quincy Adams and other names like “Joe Six-Pack” and “Jane Wine-cooler” have been created to represent specific groups within the larger population.
Politicians and other professionals often divide the world into two groups: those who are “in the know” and those who are average, uninformed citizens. This second group is commonly represented by a hypothetical “common man” named John Q. Public, or his lovely hypothetical wife, Jane Q. Public. Together, Public represent the sensibilities and beliefs of the typical man or woman on the street. This name represents the ideal common man for the purpose of measuring public opinion about an issue or theorizing about how an average citizen will react to a political or professional decision.
The idea of a hypothetical common man goes back several centuries. Before becoming John Q. Public, this “common man” could have been John Doe or Richard Roe in court documents designed to protect the privacy of the plaintiff or defendant during a hearing. An unidentified body in a morgue may have been tagged with the names John Doe or Jane Roe until identification became possible. The concept of creating a hypothetical name for a notional citizen also became popular in early politics, as lawmakers debated the effects of a proposed law or tax on John Q. Citizen, John Q. Taxpayer, or Jane Q. Public.
The name “John Q. Public” may have been a reference to President John Quincy Adams, at least in the sense of creating an innocuous full name for a theoretical citizen. The first name John is very common, and the uncommon last name would most likely prevent hundreds of real John Q. Publics from getting unwanted attention.
While the use of this name is still used quite often to describe an average citizen with no apparent political leanings or definite social classification, other names have also been created. A working-class male, for example, might be considered “Joe Six-Pack” for the sake of argument, while his wife might be “Jane Wine-cooler.” This application of personal identifiers of alcoholics likely brings the concept of a generic John Q. Public to a more specific type of average citizen. While John Q. Public might represent the citizenry at large, Joe Six-Pack and Jane Wine-cooler represent a certain faction of working-class citizens within that group.
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