Q: I’ve found an earlier citation for “Tom, Dick, and Harry” than the one you cite in your Feb. 18, 2007, posting about the expression. The 17th-century English theologian John Owen used the words in 1657. I discovered this on page 52 of God’s Statesman, a 1971 a biography of Owen written by Peter Toon.
A: You’re right. Owen told a governing body at Oxford University that “our critical situation and our common interests were discussed out of journals and newspapers by every Tom, Dick and Harry.”
That predates this example, the earliest citation for the combination “Tom, Dick, and Harry” in the Oxford English Dictionary: “They affirm, that once upon a time, … Tom, Dick, and Harry, ay, every individual Man, Woman, and Child, had a Right to the whole World.”
(From a 1724 speech given by John Checkley in a Boston court where he was being tried for a tract attacking Puritanism. His speech in his defense was published in 1730 as “Mr. J. Checkley’s Speech Upon Tryal.”)
The OED’s next oldest citation appeared soon afterward: “Farewell, Tom, Dick, and Harry, Farewell, Moll, Nell, and Sue.” The quotation appears to be from a song lyric in Vocal Miscellany (2nd ed., 1734).
But why those particular names? Simply because they were so common. Here’s how the OED defines the nickname “Tom” used in this way:
“(A generic name for) a man or boy, esp. one considered ordinary or unexceptional; a fellow, a chap. Frequently in collocation with other common male forenames.”
And in an entry for the fuller phrase, Oxford has this: “Tom, Dick, and (also or) Harry: used to refer to any average men, taken at random; ordinary people generally; anyone at all.”
And for an example of a variation on the theme, with a slight change in the names, here’s one from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 (1696): “I am sworn brother to a leash of Drawers, and can call them by their names, as Tom, Dicke, and Francis.”
Thanks for the new information. We’ve added a note about the Owen quotation to our original blog post.
We suspect that we’ll be doing a lot more updating as years go by. Language sleuths are discovering earlier and earlier citations for words and phrases as Google and others digitize millions of published works.
Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation. And check out our books about the English language and more.