Tai (戴)
A Taiwanese surname.
戴 Tai
- Zhuyin
- ㄉㄞˋ
- Pinyin
- dài
- Wade-Giles
- Tai
- Further spellings of 戴
- Dai
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-lô)
- Tè Tè is the colloquial (白讀) reading, while tài is the character's literary (文讀) reading.
- Hakka (Sixian)
- dai⁵⁵
- Rank in Taiwan
- 50th most common surname, roughly 0.35% of the population (2023 Ministry of the Interior figures)
What the character means
It means 'to wear' (on the head, face, chest or arm) and 'to support, honour' (as in 愛戴).
Where the surname comes from
Tradition traces it to Duke Dai of Song (宋戴公), a descendant of the Shang kings; his descendants took his posthumous name as their surname. Hall name (堂號): 譙國堂.
Saying it 我姓戴 — wǒ xìng dài (ㄨㄛˇ ㄒㄧㄥˋ ㄉㄞˋ), "my family name is 戴"
Sources: rank and share, 內政部 全國姓名統計分析 (Ministry of the Interior, National Name Statistics), data as of 2023-06-30. Taiwanese Hokkien readings, 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi), 百家姓 appendix. Hakka, 教育部臺灣客語辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Taiwan Hakka), 百家姓表, Sixian (四縣腔).