Jintao

Jintao is a Chinese masculine given name. It is commonly written with the characters 锦涛, which together are often interpreted as "brocade waves" or "resplendent waves." The character 锦 conveys brightness or wealth through the image of brocade, while 涛 refers to waves or billows. As a given name, Jintao is used across Chinese-speaking communities, including Mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore. In Chinese naming practice, the family name comes before the given name, so a person named Hu Jintao has the family name Hu and the given name Jintao.

The standard romanization is Jintao in pinyin. Older romanization systems, such as Wade-Giles, have forms like Chin-tao. The name is generally used for males, though naming practices in Chinese-speaking communities vary and character choices determine meaning more than gender in some families.

Notable individuals with the given name include Hu Jintao (born 1942), a prominent Chinese politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party and as President of the People’s Republic of China from 2002 to 2012. The given name appears in other contexts as well, but Hu Jintao is the most internationally recognizable bearer.