colloq. Substituted for the name of a man or boy (loosely, of a thing) that the speaker forgets, does not know, or is unwilling to mention. So What’s-her-name (of a woman or girl), What’s-its-name (of a thing), What’s-your-name (of a person addressed).
Whatsename (quot. 1866) represents an ambiguous form which is not uncommon. What’s-their-names (quot. 1773) is very rare.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., III. 61. Two Figures on the sides emboss’d appear; Conon, and what’s his Name who made the Sphere.
1757. Foote, Author, I. Look ye here, Mr. What’s-your-name?
1773. G. A. Stevens, Trip to Portsmouth, ii. 28. The what’s-their-names at uproars squall.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., Concl. ‘And what became of old Mrs. What’s her name, the housekeeper?’ ‘Mrs Wilson, madam,’ answered I.
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, xxiii. Mr. Thingamy, you will take the what’s-his-name.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxxi. Those great folks in what’s-its-name Place. Ibid. (1846), Cricket on Hearth, i. There was soon the very What’s-his-name to pay. Ibid. (1848), Dombey, xxi. ‘But seclusion and contemplation are my what’s-his-name—’ ‘If you mean Paradise, Mamma, you had better say so, to render yourself intelligible.’
1866. Reade, Griffith Gaunt, xv. He … almost persuaded Whatsename, another heathen gentleman, to be a Christian.
1872. Earl Pembroke & G. H. Kingsley, S. Sea Bubbles, i. 29. The back-sliding individual is looked upon, not without reason, by the more religious and decent of the community as little better than one of the what’s-his-names.
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, i. It makes one feel like What’s-her-name in the ‘Trovatore.’
