Names Company Eslpod Placeholder John Jane Refer Acme

Some names are used as "placeholder" (with a temporary position, holding the place for something else) names when the true identify or someone or something is not known.

The most common placeholder names are John Smith, John Doe, and Jane Doe. For example, someone might use these names when speaking about a "hypothetical" (not real, but possible) "contract" (legal agreement): "This paragraph means that if Jane Doe doesn't pay her bill on time the company can begin charging interest and late fees."

When someone wants to refer to a company without specifying a name, he or she might choose "Acme." For example, in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons, products are often labeled as having been made by the Acme Corporation, but this is seen in other contexts. In a business class, for example, a professor might talk about buying supplies from Acme Corporation so that students can focus on a "concrete" (specific) example without referring to an "actual" (real; not imaginary) company.

Sometimes people don't know the name for something, so they might refer to it as a "widget," "gizmo," or "thingy." These are "vague" (not specific) "terms" (words) that don't let the reader or listener know exactly what the speaker or writer is referring to, but do "convey" (express) the idea that some tool or object is involved. For example, someone working in "product development" (the part of a company involved in producing new goods to sell) might say, "Let's create a gizmo that makes it easier to change bicycle tire tubes."