Jan Kowalski (placeholder name)

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In Polish culture, Jan Kowalski is a placeholder name for an average Polish person, the usage being similar to "John Smith" in some English speaking cultures.

The surname Kowalski/Kowalska is the second most common surname in Poland (140,471 people in 2009), with the leader being Nowak (207,348 in 2009).

The name is close to John Smith, both in translation and in the metonymic meaning of averageness, although a more literal translation would be "John Smithson", as -ski is a patronymic suffix in Polish-language surnames. Analogous names in other languages include Jean Lefèvre, Giovanni Ferrari, Ivan Kuznetsov, Sean McGowan, Hans Schmidt, Kovács János, etc.

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