Katherine Martin of the Oxford English Dictionary explained that the way in which "babies start to vocalize" had a profound impact on the emergence of the word dad, according to Time. Martin added that, regardless of the language in question, the words we use for fathers and mothers around the world share "unusual similarit[ies]."
As such, it's natural that many infants would be inclined to speak the words dada, papa, daddy, and so on. Words with repeated sounds (such as dada) are the easiest for babies to pronounce as they learn to enunciate. Plus, excitable parents — longing to be called mom or dad — have encouraged their children to say such words/make such sounds for generations. Connections between dada, daddy, and dad are much clearer than those between the words father and dad, and it also seems that the transition from daddy to dad would come about naturally as the child ages.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCEj2pocmtfrLW6ecOoZLCdXarApnnToZxmr5%2BnsW6wwJ1kn6eiYrOiwMeeqWg%3D