Tom, Dick and Harry

• Tom, Dick or Harry

Three common first names; many languages have similar formations, see translations. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Tom, Dick and Harry pl (plural only)

1. Anybody or everybody; random or unknown people.

   every Tom, Dick and Harry (everybody)

   any Tom, Dick or Harry (anybody)

   We want the place to be accessible to any Tom, Dick or Harry that happens to find it.

   • 1661, John Payne Collier, N D, editors, An antidote against melancholy: made up in pills., published reprint, page 90:

     Here is Tom, Jack, and Harry:
     Sing away, and doe not tarry.
     Merrily now let's sing, carouse, and tiple.

   • 1723, Charles Leslie, A short and easie method with the deists: Wherein, the certainty of the , page 12:

     […] and that there was no such Thing as Government in the World; and that Tom, Dick, and Harry, ay, every individual Man, Woman, and Child, had a Right to the whole World […]

   • 1922, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “First Steps in Education”, in Fantasia of the Unconscious, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Seltzer, →OCLC, pages 111–112:

     Those whose nature it is to be rational will instinctively ask why and wherefore, and wrestle with themselves for an answer. But why every Tom, Dick and Harry should have the why and wherefore of the universe rammed into him, and should be allowed to draw the conclusion hence that he is the ideal person and responsible for the universe, I don't know.

2. (business, programming, uncommon) Three hypothetical customers, user personas, or similar constructs.

• (hypothetical people): Alice and Bob; Huey, Dewey and Louie