how do you translate Jane Doe into Spanish?

Question

How would you translate this sentence into spanish: " Jane Doe, a minor, was the victim of a crime."

Answer 1

Colloquially, we say "fulano", "mengano" and "zutano" for John Doe, and changing the endings to -a you get the Janes. However, "fulana" also means prostiture, so you better avoid this one.

The police would never use these words in a report or on TV, though; people would laugh (and someone in the Police Department would get fired). If they don't want to say who it was, they'd simply say "An underage girl was the victim of a crime" (Una menor fue la víctima del crimen) or something like that.

Answer 2

Just for fun, I will share with you that a friend of mine -- not a native English speaker - once asked me why we talk about a certain "Jane Dough". (She asked me in her own language of course...I would not otherwise have known that she was hearing "Dough" Well, I guess she was!!

It sure was funny.

That is funny! Maybe she thought Jane Dough was some kind of celebrity.:) - yv5194, SEP 3, 2009

Answer 3

I think in this context we would use the wording:

una persona no identificada......

However, in this case, we know who the victim is, we just want to keep her identity private. - yv5194, SEP 3, 2009

Answer 4

Thank you! somone wanted me to use the word "Zutana," because it is in a legal dictionary, but that didn't sound right either.