Idiom idiom
Richard Roe
Meaning
Synonym of John Doe.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The legal form asks you to sign as Richard Roe.”
“In the hypothetical case study, the lawyer used the name Richard Roe to protect the client's identity.”
“The court document listed the unknown defendant as Richard Roe, a standard placeholder for an unidentified party in legal proceedings.”
Origin
A placeholder name for a party in a legal proceeding, derived by analogy from John Doe. The name John Doe was established in legal practice to represent a fictitious plaintiff, leading to the adoption of Richard Roe to represent a second anonymous party or the defendant.
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026