It was named after Toshio Sudo (1911-2000), professor of mineralogy at the University of Tokyo, in Japan, and a pioneer of clay science.
It was approved as a valid species by the International Mineralogical Association in 1966.
Following the Nickel–Strunz classification, it is contained in the "09.EC.55" group: It has been first discovered in the Knollenberg Keuper formation, in the village of Plochingen, Stuttgart Region (Baden-Württemberg, Germany).
It is found mainly in hydrothermal or high-pressure/low-temperature (HP/LT) metamorphism contexts[5][6][7] This mineral has been used as gemstone for the production of personal ornaments, beads and pendants, during the Early Ceramic Age (500 BC – 500 AD), in the Lesser Antilles.
[8] The precise source of such formation of sudoite allowing to carve artifacts in rather large blocks remain unknown.