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The first name 
Mateo

Mateo is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.

The name Mateo is very popular!

The first name Mateo is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #48 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Mateo, accounting for approximately 0.40 % of all newborn boys. In the entire USA, approximately 91,074 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Mateo. That is 0.03 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Mateo

What does the name 
Mateo mean?

The name Mateo is a Spanish and Italian variant of the name Matthew. Its Hebrew origin, the name Mattithyahu, means “gift of God”. Mateo conveys a sense of devotion and faith because of its strong biblical meaning.

Did you know… that Matthew, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, is, according to Christian tradition, considered to be the same person as Matthew the Evangelist? Today, most biblical scholars reject this claim.

Mateo has several famous namesakes

Uruguayan actor

Mateo Chiarino (*1983)
The Uruguayan stage actor made his film debut in 2008. He starred in several Spanish speaking productions before gaining international attention for his lead role in Hawaii (2013). Chiarino also works as a screenwriter and theatre director.

A film composer

Mateo Messina (*1972)
The American composer is best known for his soundtrack to the 2007 film Juno. He contributed to other films by Jason Reitman, such as Up in the Air (2009) and Young Adult (2011). Messina also composes symphonies, with the proceeds of each premiere benefiting families at Seattle Childrens Hospital.

Croatian soccer player

Mateo Kovačić (*1994)
Kovačić is a professional soccer player from Croatia. He was in the squad of renowned clubs like Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and Chelsea FC and is nicknamed 'The Professor' due to his playing style. In 2018, he and his team were runner-ups in the world championship with Croatia.

Argentine soccer player

Mateo Musacchio (*1990)
Musacchio is a former Argentine soccer player of Albanian origin. The central defender spent most of his career with Villarreal CF in Spain and also joined AC Milan and Lazio Rome in Italy. For 6 years, he was a member of the Argentine national team.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Mateo, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Mateo? Are you also called Mateo? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

Near San Francisco...

lies San Mateo County in the US state of California. The San Francisco International Airport, approximately 7 miles south of the city, is located in this county.

The city San Mateo...

is located in the San Mateo County. It has over 100,000 inhabitants and is the birthplace of Kris Kristofferson and Tom Brady, among others.

Mateo -
a name for the future?

This is a real surprise! Mateo is a name that has been around for a long time, but only really took off in the 21st century. In the year 2022, it reached its best rank at #11 according to our SmartGenius statistics. This makes Mateo much more popular than in previous generations, where it was so rare for several years that it was not even recorded in the statistics. While the name Mateo was observed for the first time ever in 1904, it now seems to have found its place in the zeitgeist of the 21st century. In 2022, the year of its highest popularity, the name was given a total of 10,321 times. Whether this beautiful boys' name can repeat or even exceed its previous best ranking in the coming years remains to be seen, but the prospects are promising given the positive trend.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Mateo was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Mateo has 5 letters 
and begins with an M

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter M is a particularly popular initial letter for boys’ names – 6.2% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. By the way, the most common first letters for boys’ names are J and A.

With five letters, the name Mateo is comparatively short. In fact, 17.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly five letters. Only 7% of all first names are even shorter, while 75% have more than five letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that with 6.2% of all boys' names that begin with an M, this first letter is much more common than the other letters on average. If you are now wondering which boys’ name with M is the most common... the answer is Michael.

Other names with 
M, a, t, e and o

If you take all the letters in the name Mateo – M, a, t, e and o – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Omaet or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Mateo

If your name is Mateo and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Mateo

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Mateo, you can simply say:

Mouse

Apple

Tiger

Elephant

Orange

This is how the name Mateo is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Mateo in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Mateo

Mateo

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Mateo

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Mateo is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

M
A
T
E
O

Have you ever waved the name Mateo

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

M
A
T
E
O

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Mateo sounds like this: