John Smith (name)

John Smith is a name often regarded as the archetype of a common personal name in most English-speaking countries, a generic name sometimes representing "everyman" or "the average person." In the United States and in the UK, "John" has historically been one of the most common male first names, and "Smith" is the most common surname in each. It is a recurrent pseudonym, placeholder name, or metasyntactic name in those countries (especially in legal contexts). In this fashion it is similar to the name "John Doe" in the U.S. and "Joe Bloggs" in the UK.

This page lists notable people named John Smith, including fictional characters.

Politicians

• [[John Smith was a bad bad man he smoke pot all day long for all his life and he didn't know what to do in his life so he killed people just for money

Cultural figures

• John Smith (clockmaker) (1770-1814)
• John Smith (comics), British comics writer
• John Smith (BBC executive) (born 1957)
• John Smith of Jamestown (1580-1631), explorer
• John Smith (filmmaker) (born 1952), avant-garde filmmaker
• John Raphael Smith (1752-1812), English mezzotint engraver and painter
• John Stafford Smith (1750-1836), composer of the tune for "The Star-Spangled Banner"
• John Smith (actor) (1931-1995), American actor on Laramie

Academic figures

• John D. Smith, indologist at the University of Cambridge
• John Smith (mathematician), mathematician at the University of Oxford, 1766-1797
• John Smith (dentist) (1825-1910), founder of the Edinburgh school of Dentistry
• John Cyril Smith (1922-2003), leading authority on English Criminal Law
• John Lawrence Smith (1818-83), American doctor and chemist. Past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• John Smith (Cambridge), Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1497, 1499, and 1504
• John McGarvie Smith, Australian metallurgist and bacteriologist

Sports figures

(Listed alphabetically by sport)

• John L. Smith,former head football coach at Michigan State
• John Smith (baseball player)
• John Smith (footballer)
• John T. Smith, American professional wrestler
• John Smith (wrestler) (born 1965)
• John Smith (American football), former New England Patriots kicker

Religious figures

(Listed alphabetically by denomination)

• John Smith (1832-1911), Mormon, a nephew of Joseph Smith, Jr.
• John Smith (1781-1854), Mormon Presiding Patriarch and an uncle of Joseph Smith, Jr.
• John Smith (Platonist) (1618-52), one of the founders of the Cambridge Platonists
• John Smith (missionary) (1790-1824), English missionary in the West Indies

Miscellaneous figures

(listed alphabetically by descriptive word)

• John F. Smith, Jr. (born 1939), General Motors former Chairman and CEO
• John Smith (brewer) (died 1879), Tadcaster brewery founder in North Yorkshire
• John Smith of Jamestown (1580-1631), Jamestown colony leader
• John Smith (Medal of Honor recipient, 1880) (born 1854), United States Navy sailor
• John Smith (VC) (1814-1864), soldier and Victoria Cross recipient

Fictional characters

• John "Hannibal" Smith, the main character in the series The A-Team
• John ("Johnny") Smith, the protagonist in Stephen King's novel The Dead Zone
• John Smith, the name given to Brad Pitt's character in Mr. & Mrs. Smith
• John Smith, an alias of the DC Comics superhero Red Tornado
• John Smith, an alias of Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Animated Series
• John Smith, the father of one of Veronica Mars' classmates in the third episode, "Meet John Smith"
• John Smith, a minor character in My-HiME
• John Smith, the leading character Kyon's alter ego in Suzumiya Haruhi
• Dr. John Smith, a regular alias of The Doctor in Doctor Who
• John "Not-A-Vampire-At-All" Smith, really named Count Vargo St. Gruet von Vilinus, from Terry Pratchett's novel Thud!

See also

• John Smyth
• Johnny Smith
• John Maynard Smith (1920-2004), a geneticist, whose complete surname is "Maynard Smith", not "Smith"
• John Smit (born 1978), South African rugby player
• Juan Smith (born 1981), South African rugby player
• John Smith's Brewery
• List of people by name: Smith, J-M#Smith, Je-Ju