The masculine name Dadul has been recorded since the late Middle Ages in the territory of Moldova. For example, in a 1448 entry, it is mentioned: "Gypsies named Dadul and Duma" - the city of Suceava. The suffix -ul indicates a Balkan origin of the name; however, its ultimate source and the semantics of the root are disputed. Serbian onomastics link this medieval name to the Romanian Dada, which, in turn, is associated with the Albanian dadä. There is also a theory that it may originate from the Serbian dialectal word dado, meaning 'father'.
