as a First Name
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.
| 32nd in the U.S. for 2011 |
Nicknames & variations
Quick facts
- Millions
- of people in the U.S have this name
- 1,060,722
- to be exact (as of February 2011)
- 1,496,533
- if you include dead people (since the government started keeping track)
- Massachusetts
- has the most people named Matthew per capita
- 1983
- marked the height of its popularity
0.20%
99.80%
2%
55+
55+
35%
30-54
30-54
36%
13-29
13-29
27%
0-12
0-12
Top state populations
U.S. Distribution Map
