Tai

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Tài in VN Vietnam.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Tai is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Chinese given name47K records spelled Tai7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan

  Also written Tài, Ta-I, Taï, T'Ai, Tải

• a separate given name39K records spelled Tai27 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Vietnam, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom

  Also written Tải, Tại, Tài, Tãi, T̴̡̡̲̺͍̩̘̋̔̕ą̸̠̗̤̻̹̞̮̫͑̃͂̈͌̀ȋ̷̧̡͚̞̊͌̆͘

• a separate given name13K records spelled Tai14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, China, United Kingdom

  Also written Tāī, Tai͏̈, Taî, Tải, Tài

• Portuguese given name7.2K records spelled Tai14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Malaysia, Hong Kong

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

  Also written Tayy, Taí, Täyy, T͏a͏i͏, Tâyy

• French given name6.4K records spelled Tai3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, Malaysia

  Also written Tài, T'Ai

79 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Tai is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Chinese, Hanyu Pinyin reading of 呔

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• An eagle.

  as a name·The African book of names

• Estremo

  as a name·Il grande libro dei nomi per bebè. Significato, origini, curiosità. Oltre 7000 nomi per bambine e bambini Significato,…

• In cdo, Tai A coll. word : to cast away ； used in the coll. for the death of a child, gone, dead ！

  as a word·An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect

• In cdo, a pine cone, ( sting-bah-lai), rapids, shallows in Streams, (tang)

  as a word·Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 77 years between 1918–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Zhou Taib. 200CNGeneral serving warlord Sun Quan (died c.223)
• Sho Taib. 1843JPlast king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom (1843-1901)
• Ta-You Wub. 1907TWnot in their usual nameChinese nuclear physicist (1907–2000)
• Mai Tai Singb. 1923USactor (1923-2018)
• Tzi Mab. 1962USnot in their usual nameHong Kong American actor
• Tai Shanib. 1976GBBritish artist
• Tai Harab. 1990AUAustralian actor
• Hồ Tấn Tàib. 1997VNVietnamese footballer
• Tai Baribob. 1998ILIsraeli footballer
• Tai Abedb. 2004ILIsraeli association footballer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 639 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Tai?

We estimate roughly 9.0 thousand people bear Tai (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Tai have the most bearers?

We estimate about 7.7 thousand people bear Tai in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled tai.

Where is Tai most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Tai is densest in Slovenia — about 1 in 2.5 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Tai compared with other names?

In Hong Kong, Tai is the 302nd most common given name of 19,389 given names recorded there.

Is Tai a male or female name?

Tai is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.

What does the name Tai mean?

Recorded meaning: A fish, the Japanese bream.