What does "tainan" mean?

A major city in southern Taiwan, dating to the 16th century

Tainan

Common synonyms include: fort orange, fort orange, fort provintia, fort provintia, fort zeelandia, fort zeelandia.

name

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Proper Noun

1
A major city in southern Taiwan, dating to the 16th century
"Camphora officinarum, Nees. The aggregate exports of camphor from China have increased considerably of late years. They were 22,231 cwt. in 1892, and 40,763 cwt. in 1893. The island of Formosa yields the principal quantities, the yearly output being now as much as 41,650 cwt., shipped from the ports of Tamsui and Tainan."
2
A former county of Taiwan. historical
"Chungshe is one of eleven villages in Liuchia township, Tainan county (see Maps 2 and 3). It lies about 30 kilometers northeast of Tainan city."

"Tainan is a famous region with a lot of temples."

From Mandarin 臺南／台南 (Táinán), meaning "South Taiwan". Officially named ca. 1885 with the creation of Tainan Prefecture.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.