Tao is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname (Táo). It ranked 31st among the Song-era Hundred Family Surnames.
Tào is also a Vietnamese surname derived from the Chinese surname Cao (Chữ Nôm: ).
Various Chinese Tao family from;
Tao was romanized T'ao under the Wade-Giles system, although it was common to omit the apostrophe. It is romanized To, Tou and Tow in Cantonese; Tô in Minnan; Tau, Tow in Teochew; and Tháu in Gan.
The Vietnamese surname formerly written as in Chữ Nôm is now written Đào; the Korean surname formerly written as in Hanja is now written and romanized Do; the same surname in Kanji is romanized Tō in Japanese.