Meaning and background
The story behind Taco
A taco is a Mexican dish built around a tortilla holding a savoury filling. The English food word came through Mexican Spanish, and Oxford traces the Spanish term further to a word meaning a plug or wad. That older dictionary history is separate from the modern dish, whose crisp two-syllable sound makes a particularly easy food-inspired dog name.
- Meaning
- A Mexican food made from a folded tortilla with a savoury filling, such as meat or beans. Source
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About Taco
Recorded as a dog’s name
Taco appears in 49 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/tɑkoʊ/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/tɑkoʊ/ · primary stress on syllable 1T AA1 K OW0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.