Archetypal Common Personal Names

“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’. Whereas “John Doe” is widely used in the United States as a recurrent pseudonym or a placeholder name for a male party in a legal action, case or discussion whose true identity is unknown (or must be withheld for legal reasons).
Below is a list of other typical placeholder names from around the world (interesting to note that the Arabic "Fulan" gets used in a lot of Hispanic countries):
Italy: Pinco Pallino; Tizio, Caio e Sempronio.
Germany: Lieschen Müller; Otto Normalverbraucher; Hinz & Kunz.
Spain: Fulano; Mengano; Zutano.
France: Monsieur Durand; Monsieur Untel; Jean Dupont; Pierre-Paul-ou-Jacques.
Belgium: Duschmol; Jos Joskens.
Netherland: Jan Jansen; Jan Modaal.
China: 无名氏 (Wúmíng Shì, literally 'Mr./Ms. No Name'); 某某 (Mǒu Mǒu, literally "so-and-so").
Japan: 名無しの権兵衛 (Nanashi-no-Gombei, literally 'Nameless member of the imperial guard').
Israel: פלוני (Ploni); אלמוני (Almoni).
Arabic countries: فلان (Fulan); علان (Ellan); مجهول (Majhoul).
Russia: Иванов Иван Иванович (Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich).

False Friends

False friends (or faux amis) are pairs of words in two different languages that seem or sound similar, but differ in meaning.
For instance, actual, which in English is usually a synonym of "real", has a different meaning in other European languages, in which it signifies "current" or "up-to-date" (aktuell in German, actuel in French, actual in Spanish, and attuale in Italian) and has the logical derivative as a verb aktualisieren (German), actualiser (French) meaning "to make current" or "to update". "Actualise" in English ("Actualize" in N.A. English) means "to realize in action, to make real, or to become actual".
Other examples:
‘Maschine’ in German means: airplane, whereas ‘macchina’ in Italian means: car.
‘Burro’ in Spanish means: donkey, whereas ‘burro’ in Italian means: butter.
‘Salir’ means to go out in Spanish, but to go up, or climb in Italian, and to soil, to make dirty in French.
‘Largo’ in Spanish means: long, whereas ‘largo’ in Italian means: wide.

Puzzling false friend:
‘Biograf’ in Danish means: cinema.
‘Transparent’ in Slovenian means: sign, slogan.