Tao
Tao was given to 16 boys in 2025, #5,822 among boys’ names; 443 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tao by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tao mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tao is “a unisex given name from Mandarin.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tao?
#5,822 among boys’ names, 2025
Tao rose from #5,955 in 2015 to #5,822 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 7.8 to 9.4 per million.
20 babies in 2021, the peak
Tao peaked in 2021, when 20 boys were given it, #4,909 among boys’ names. The 16 births of 2025 are 80% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 16 | #5,822 | 9.4 |
| 2024 | 8 | #9,757 | 4.6 |
| 2023 | 12 | #7,245 | 7.0 |
| 2022 | 16 | #5,837 | 9.2 |
| 2021 | 20 | #4,909 | 11.4 |
| 2020 | 9 | #8,649 | 5.2 |
| 2019 | 9 | #8,791 | 5.0 |
| 2018 | 13 | #6,653 | 7.2 |
| 2017 | 11 | #7,482 | 5.9 |
| 2016 | 17 | #5,526 | 9.0 |
Every recorded year (42)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 15 | #5,955 | 7.8 |
| 2014 | 13 | #6,579 | 6.8 |
| 2013 | 7 | #10,595 | 3.7 |
| 2012 | 15 | #5,951 | 7.9 |
| 2011 | 15 | #5,910 | 7.9 |
| 2010 | 16 | #5,701 | 8.3 |
| 2009 | 15 | #6,047 | 7.6 |
| 2008 | 9 | #8,920 | 4.4 |
| 2007 | 12 | #7,023 | 5.8 |
| 2006 | 13 | #6,411 | 6.3 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,579 | 5.0 |
| 2004 | 9 | #8,071 | 4.5 |
| 2003 | 11 | #6,661 | 5.6 |
| 2002 | 15 | #5,101 | 7.7 |
| 2001 | 11 | #6,387 | 5.7 |
| 2000 | 11 | #6,251 | 5.6 |
| 1999 | 6 | #9,769 | 3.1 |
| 1997 | 5 | #10,630 | 2.7 |
| 1995 | 6 | #8,754 | 3.2 |
| 1991 | 6 | #8,120 | 3.0 |
| 1989 | 7 | #6,845 | 3.5 |
| 1986 | 6 | #6,628 | 3.3 |
| 1985 | 5 | #7,455 | 2.7 |
| 1984 | 10 | #4,170 | 5.5 |
| 1980 | 9 | #4,464 | 5.0 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,650 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,746 | 3.0 |
| 1975 | 5 | #6,233 | 3.2 |
| 1974 | 7 | #4,578 | 4.5 |
| 1973 | 9 | #3,661 | 5.8 |
| 1972 | 8 | #3,924 | 4.9 |
| 1970 | 6 | #4,669 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Tao a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 443 Americans recorded as Tao, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 16 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Tao: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tao, and how old are they?
An estimated 431 Americans named Tao and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 9 and 26. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 4,759 people named Tao (1,084 women and girls, 3,675 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 356 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 38,513 babies since 1880, Tao is the sixth most given (1.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 16 of their 2,251 babies (<1%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Tao
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Tao and names like it
- Compare Tao and TateBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sTao peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tao since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Tao.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Tao alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with TMost given first.