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Tadao
How to Pronounce Tadao
Pronounced TAH-dah-oh /หtษหdษหoส/Medium
Meaning: Tadao is a Japanese given name written in romaji here. Its meaning depends on the kanji a family chooses, so no single gloss fits every bearer; a very common reading pairs an element meaning 'loyal' or 'faithful' with -o, a frequent ending in men's names, giving roughly 'loyal man' or 'faithful man'. Other kanji can shift the sense, which is why the meaning is described as character-dependent.Low
Popularity in the U.S. ยท SSA data
U.S. births per year (Social Security Administration, 1880โpresent). Pink marker = peak year.
SSA data updated May 2026. How we source & verify this data.
History & Origin
Tadao is a traditional Japanese man's name in which a first element, often one meaning 'loyal' or 'faithful', is joined to the common masculine ending -o. It appears in United States records chiefly among the Issei and Nisei, the first Japanese immigrants and their American-born children, whose community grew on the West Coast in the decades before the Second World War.
Its American footprint was small and concentrated in that pre-war immigrant cohort, drawing only a couple dozen boys a year even at its high around 1920 and its recorded span reaching to the late nineteen-thirties. A boy named Tadao then belongs to a great-grandfather's generation now, his name marking a specific chapter of Japanese-American history.
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Frequently Asked
What does the name Tadao mean?
It is a Japanese name whose meaning depends on the kanji chosen; a common reading is 'loyal' or 'faithful man'.
How do you pronounce Tadao?
It's said TAH-dah-oh /หtษหdษหoส/, three syllables, stress on the first.
Is Tadao a boy or girl name?
Tadao is used as a boy's name.
Is Tadao a popular name?
No, it was always rare in America, carried by Japanese immigrant families and seeing only faint use in the early twentieth century, around the nineteen-twenties.