The verse states (Ruth 4:1):
וּבֹעַז עָלָה הַשַּׁעַר, וַיֵּשֶׁב שָׁם, וְהִנֵּה הַגֹּאֵל עֹבֵר אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר-בֹּעַז, וַיֹּאמֶר סוּרָה שְׁבָה-פֹּה פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי; וַיָּסַר, וַיֵּשֵׁב
Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat him down there; and, behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by; unto whom he said: 'Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here.' And he turned aside, and sat down.
Why is everyone so convinced that Ploni Almoni is meant to be a placeholder of sorts and not actually his name? And if it is a placeholder, then what is its root? P-L-N? What does that mean?
Answer
In hebrew wiki, you can see usage of this term in Shmuel 1 21:3 as a placeholder of a place (hmm...), so it couldn't be a name of a person.
This is also supported by linguistic connection of the words Ploni and Unknown
הפרשנים הסבירו את מקור המילה "פלוני" כגזור מ"פלאי", סתום, ואת "אלמוני" מלשון "אלמון", דהיינו כאדם אלמן, או מלשון אילם, שכן אין יודעים לקרוא לו בשם.
However, there also brought an opinion (of Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi) that in Ruth this is really a name of a person.
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