every Tom, Dick, and Harry

Everyone, including those of low social sta- tus; the common herd. Although this term dates, in slightly different form, from Shakespeare’s time (he used Tom, Dick, and Francis in Henry IV, Part 1,

[2.4]), the  names  that  survived  into  clichédom  come  from  the  early  nine- teenth  century,  when  they  were  quite  popular.  One  of  the  earliest  refer- ences in print is from the Farmer’s Almanack of 1815, although there it may have  literally  meant  three  specific  individuals  (“He  hired Tom,  Dick,  and Harry, and  at  it  they  all  went”). John Adams  used  it  (1818)  in  its  present meaning:  “Tom,  Dick,  and  Harry  were  not  to  censure  them”—in  other words, not just anybody had the right to censure them.