Who is John Q. Public?

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 adoring hypothetical wife, Jane Q. Public. Together, the Publics represent the sensibilities and beliefs of the typical man or woman on the street. This name represents the ideal everyman for the purposes of gauging public opinion on an issue or theorizing on how an average citizen will react to a political or professional decision.

The idea of a hypothetical Everyman dates back a number of centuries. Before he became 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 theoretical citizen also became popular in early politics, as legislators argued over 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 name John is very common, and the uncommon last name would most likely keep hundreds of actual John Q. Public's from receiving unwanted attention.

While the use of this name is still used quite often to describe an average citizen with no apparent political leanings or defined social classification, other names have also been created. A working class male, for example, might be considered "Joe Six-Pack" for the sake of an argument, while his wife might be "Jane Wine-cooler". This application of personal alcoholic identifiers arguably 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.