TOM, DICK AND HARRY - "This group of names signifying any indiscriminate collection of masculine representatives of 'hoi polloi' was a more or less haphazard choice. It probably started with names common in the sixteenth century. Thus Sir David Lyndesay, in 'Ane Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour' (c. 1555), has 'Wherefore to colliers, carters and cokes to Iack (Jack) and Tom my rime shall be directed.' And Shakespeare, in 'Love's Labour's Lost' (1588), gives us in the closing song, 'And Dicke the Shepheard blowes his nails' and Tom beares Logges into the hall.' And 'Dick, Tom and Jack' served through the seventeenth century. But our present group was apparently an American selection. It appeared (according to George L. Kittredge's 'The Old Farmer and his Almanac,' 1904) in 'The Farmer's Almanack' for 1815: 'So he hired Tom, Dick and Harry, and at it they went.'" From "Heavens to Betsy" by Charles Earle Funk (Harper & Row, New York, 1955). -
The Phrase Finder---
Every Tom, Dick, and Harry
Meaning: Everyone, all ordinary individuals.
Example: The company's newest model should appeal to every Tom, Dick, and Harry.
Origin: The use of masculine names in this phrase dates from Shakespeare's time (he used Tom, Dick, and Francis in I Henry IV), but the current usage dates from the early 1800s.
Variants: "Every mother's son" (1583) & "Every man Jack" 1800s). These 2 variants are British and occasionally used in America. -
Phrases. Clichés, Expressions & Sayings---
Every Tom, Dick & Harry
The saying didn't start out with these three names. It's believed that the saying, which started out in the 16th century, was a reference to the most common names of the time. In Ane Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour (1555), Sir David Lyndesay said, "Wherefore to colliers, carters and cokes to Jack and Tom my rime shall be directed." Shakespeare, in 1588's Love's Labour's Lost, talks about a Dick and Tom. The modern version is an American expression which first appeared in the 1815 edition of The Farmer's Almanac: "So he hired Tom, Dick and Harry, and at it they went." -
Mindless Crap---
The Dictionary of Clichés gives the date of first usage as 1604.
---
Henry IV, Pt I Act II, Scene IV
PRINCE HENRY
With three or four loggerheads amongst three or four
score hogsheads. I have sounded the very
base-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother
to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by
their christen names, as
Tom, Dick, and Francis. 
]
