Where the name comes from
Two main lines. The larger descends from Duke Dai of Song, the eleventh ruler of the State of Song, who reigned 799–766 BC; after his death a junior branch of his descendants took his posthumous title 戴 as their clan name. The second comes from the small state of Dai, located in what is now Minquan County, Henan, which was annexed by the state of Zheng in 713 BC, after which its ruling house and people adopted the state's name as their surname.
The same name, spelled differently
A Chinese surname is a character, not a spelling. The Latin letters on a passport come from whichever dialect the name was written down from — so these are all 戴.
- DaiMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- TaiCantonese — Hong Kong (also the Wade-Giles spelling)
- ThaiMalaysia
- ĐớiVietnamese
The character
Outside a name, 戴 is an ordinary word meaning to put on or wear (glasses, hat, gloves etc).
- Strokes
- 17
- Radical
- 戈
- As a word
- dài
Words built from 戴
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.