| Long | Tao | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | dragon | Great waves (涛) |
| Origin | chinese | Chinese |
| Gender | Boy | Boy |
| Pronunciation | long | TOW |
| Syllables | 1 | 1 |
| First appeared | 1975 | 1970 |
| Peak year | 1988 (133) | 2021 (20) |
| In 2025 | 5 | 16 |
| Trend | Vintage | Steady |
Source: US Social Security Administration.
| Decade | Long | Tao |
|---|---|---|
| 2020s | 69 | 81 |
| 2010s | 187 | 131 |
| 2000s | 306 | 116 |
| 1990s | 470 | 23 |
| 1980s | 731 | 37 |
| 1970s | 146 | 45 |
From Chinese (and Vietnamese) 龙 / 龍 (long, Mandarin tone lóng) 'dragon', a benevolent, imperial, rain-bringing figure. Note: it is a romanization of a tonal syllable, also spelled Lung in Wade-Giles/Cantonese; the same Pinyin 'Long' can represent the unrelated 隆 'prosperous, abundant', so the dragon sense is specific to 龙/龍.
Tao is commonly the character 涛, “great waves,” or 桃, “peach.”
Tao is more popular than Long today: about 16 US babies were given the name Tao in 2025, compared with 5 named Long.
Long means dragon (chinese origin), while Tao means Great waves (涛) (Chinese origin).
In US records, Long first appears in 1975 and Tao in 1970, so Tao has the longer recorded history.