Tao is the

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...

of the

Chinese surname Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlik ...

(''Táo''). It listed 31st in the

Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetiti ...

-era ''

Hundred Family Surnames The ''Hundred Family Surnames'' (), commonly known as ''Bai Jia Xing'', also translated as ''Hundreds of Chinese Surnames'', is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song dy ...

'' poem. Tào is also a

Vietnamese surname Traditional Vietnamese personal names generally consist of three parts, used in Eastern name order. * A family name (normally patrilineal, The father’s family name may be combined with the mother's family name to form a compound family name) ...

derived from the Chinese surname Cao (

Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ; ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters ('' Chữ Hán'') to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represent ...

: ).

Origin

Various Chinese Tao family from; * Qi (surname) (祁) *

Public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

Officer of Zhou Dynasty *

Miao people The Miao are a group of linguistically-related peoples living in Southern China and Southeast Asia, who are recognized by the government of China as one of the 56 official ethnic groups. The Miao live primarily in southern China's mountains, in ...

Tujia people The Tujia ( Northern Tujia: ''Bifjixkhar'' / ''Bifzixkar'', IPA: , Southern Tujia: ''Mongrzzir'', ; ) are an ethnic group and, with a total population of over 8 million, the eighth-largest officially recognized ethnic minority in the People's ...

Blang people The Blang (布朗族, Bùlǎngzú; also spelled Bulong) people are an ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Names Yan & Zhou (2012:147)Yan Qixiang ��其香& Zhou Zhizhi ...

Yao people The Yao people (its majority branch is also known as Mien; ; vi, người Dao) is a government classification for various minorities in China and Vietnam. They are one of the 55 officially recognised ethnic minorities in China and reside in t ...

Yi people The Yi or Nuosu people,; zh, c=彝族, p=Yízú, l=Yi ethnicity historically known as the Lolo,; vi, Lô Lô; th, โล-โล, Lo-Lo are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering nine million people, they are the seve ...

Dai people The Dai people ( Burmese: ရှမ်းလူမျိုး; khb, ᨴᩱ/ᨴᩱ᩠ᨿ; lo, ໄຕ; th, ไท; shn, တႆး, ; , ; ) refers to several Tai-speaking ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and ...

Minority Group The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

* Mongolian *Tuoheluo, Tuqin, Tuokuer family of

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmo ...

Xibe people The Sibe or Xibo (, , ; ), are a Tungusic-speaking East Asian ethnic group living mostly in Xinjiang, Jilin and Shenyang in Liaoning. The Sibe form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by China, and had a recorded population of 190 ...

Romanization

Tao was romanized T'ao under the Wade-Giles system, although it was common to omit the apostrophe. It is romanized To, Tou and Tow in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

;

Tô Tô or To is a Vietnamese surname. It was formerly written in chữ Nôm as . It derived from the Chinese surname Su, which is written identically to the chữ Nôm in traditional characters but as in modern simplified characters. List of person ...

in Minnan; Tau, Tow in Teochew; and Tháu in Gan. The Vietnamese surname formerly written as in Chữ Nôm is now written Đào; the Korean surname formerly written as in

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...

is now written and

romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

Do; the same surname in

Kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

Tō in Japanese.

Distribution

Tao was the 82nd-most-common surname in mainland China, but it was unlisted among the 100 most common Taiwanese surnames. Tao is a fairly uncommon surname in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, being ranked 12,503rd during the 1990 census and 10,033rd during the year 2000 one.

History

Some

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

ese Tao who joined the

White Banner The Plain White Banner () was one of the Eight Banners of Manchu military and society during the Later Jin and Qing dynasty of China. It was one of the three "upper" banners (Plain Yellow Banner, Bordered Yellow Banner, and Plain White Banner) dir ...

upon the advent of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

Manchufied their name to Tohoro (Chinese: Tuohuoluo). Notable descendants along this line include Duanfang.

People with the surname

;Tao * David Tao or Tao Zhe, singer *

Tao Kan Tao Kan () (259 – 30 July 334According to Emperor Cheng's biography in ''Book of Jin'', Tao Kan died on the ''yimao'' day of the 6th month of the 9th year of the ''Xianhe'' era of his reign. This corresponds to 30 Jul 334 on the Julian calendar.� ...

, Jin Dynasty general and governor * Tao Luna, sports shooter *

Michael Tao Michael Tao Dai Yu (, born 26 August 1963) is a Hong Kong television actor. Career Tao entered the acting industry in the 1980s, affiliating with TVB. It was during this period that Tao earned the name "Housewife Killer" due to his overwhelmin ...

, television actor * Tao Qian, warlord during the late

Han Dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

Tao Yuanming Tao Yuanming (; 365–427), also known as Tao Qian (; also T'ao Ch'ien in Wade-Giles), was a Chinese poet and politician who was one of the best-known poets during the Six Dynasties period. He was born during the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420 ...

, scholar and poet of the Jin dynasty * Tao Siju, politician *

Terence Tao Terence Chi-Shen Tao (; born 17 July 1975) is an Australian-American mathematician. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the James and Carol Collins chair. His research includes ...

, Australian mathematician and 2006

Fields Medal The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years. The name of the award h ...

ist * Tao Yang, Professor at UCSB and Chief Scientist at Ask Jeeves *

Tao Zhu Tao Zhu (; 16 January 1908 – 30 November 1969) was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party . Biography Born in Qiyang, Hunan, Tao Zhu was Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee and Commander of t ...

, politician * Tao Hongkai, Chinese-American scholar, activist. ;Tohoro * Duanfang, a

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

-era politician

People with the Japanese surname

*, Japanese ski jumper *, Japanese baseball player

References

{{surname Chinese-language surnames Japanese-language surnames Individual Chinese surnames