MATTHEW ERNEST

English form of the name of the Christian evangelist, author of the first gospel in the New Testament. His name is a form of the Hebrew name Mattathia, meaning ‘gift of God’, which is fairly common in the Old Testament, being rendered in the Authorized Version in a number of different forms: Mattan(i)ah, Mattatha(h), Mattithiah, Mattathias, and so on. In the Authorized Version, the evangelist is regularly referred to as Matthew, while the apostle chosen to replace Judas Iscariot is distinguished as Matthias. A related name from the same Hebrew roots, but reversed, is Jonathan. Throughout the English-speaking world Matthew has been particularly popular since the 1970s.

English and Dutch: from the Germanic byname mentioned at Ernst. However, Reaney cites medieval evidence for Norman spellings such as Ernais, and derives it from a Germanic personal name Arn(e)gis, possibly composed of the elements arn ‘eagle’ + gīsil ‘pledge’, ‘hostage’, ‘noble youth’ (see Giesel). The name may have been altered by folk etymology to coincide with the word meaning ‘combat’. Compare Harness.