Matthew is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.
The first name Matthew is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #17 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Matthew, accounting for approximately 0.60 % of all newborn boys. In total, there are currently 1,624,595 people – children, adults and seniors – named Matthew living in the United States, which is approximately 0.48 % of the entire population.
The first name is originally derived from the Hebrew name Matityahu, which means ‘Gift of Yahweh’. It has a long history of development: first there was a transliteration into Greek (‘Mattathias’). This version was shortened over time to the name ‘Matthaios’, which in turn was Latinized to ‘Matthaeus’, which became Matthew in English.
Did you know... that Matthew is also the name of a tropical hurricane? The hurricane formed in 2016 and moved over parts of the Atlantic.
Matthew
Matthew is one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, for a while, was considered an evangelist. His symbol is the man, who is usually depicted winged and thus can take on the appearance of an angel. Matthew is the patron saint of accountants, money changers, financial and bankers and tax collectors.
Matthew McConaughey (*1969)
McConaughey is an American actor who won an Oscar in 2014 for his performance in "Dallas Buyers Club" (2013). Other films of his include "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" (2003), "Interstellar" (2014) and "Gold" (2016). His autobiography "Greenlights" (2020) even made it onto The New York Times Best Seller list.
Matthew Herbert (1972)
He is a British electronic musician, film composer and music producer, who also goes by the pseudonyms "Herbert", "Doctor Rockit", "Wishmountain", and "Radio Boy". He often uses everyday sounds or noises to produce his music.
Matthew Barney (*1967)
This American contemporary media artist uses a wide variety of genres in his work, including sculptural environments, installations, drawing, performance, and video. One of his most famous works is the "Cremaster cycle" (1994 – 2002). The cycle is a series of five feature-length films released along with associated sculptures, photographs, drawings, and artist books.
Matthew Flinders (1774 - 1814)
He was a British explorer, botanist and cartographer who made several voyages of exploration with William Bligh and George Bass, among others. He discovered, for example, the Spencer Gulf and the St. Vincent Gulf (Australia). He was the first explorer to sail completely around Australia.
Matthew Parris (*1949)
Matthew Parris is a former British Conservative Party politician who is now an author and journalist. He was a member of the House of Commons for West Derbyshire from about 1979 to 1986. He then took over the British television program "Weekend World" (1986 - 1988) on ITV as a television presenter. Several other jobs followed, such as journalist on BBC Radio 4 and as an author of various books.
When you hear the name Matthew, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Matthew? Are you also called Matthew? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
Declared as a nature reserve, St. Matthew Island is an uninhabited island in the Bering Sea belonging to the US state of Alaska.
you can visit the St. Matthew's Cathedral. It is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded in 1803 and is named after St. Matthew the Evangelist.
History tends to focus on the most famous and the best. But even those who play second fiddle leave their mark: Matthew is one of those names without which the orchestra would be incomplete. In fact, it has reached the SmartGenius top ranking #2 more than once, although the last time was some while ago, towards the end of the past century in 1996. But even though the peak of popularity was a few decades ago, the name Matthew has been given to newborn boys every year since records began. Matthew is a name of exceptional, enduring popularity, conveying the special vibes of the 80s and 90s of the 20th century.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Matthew was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
The popularity of the name Matthew may have peaked some time ago, but the name has still made it into the 21st century. In 2022, it ranked #41 in our statistics - perhaps a far cry from when your grandparents and parents were much younger and Matthew made it into the top ten more than once, but still: traditional names often prove to be perennial favorites, so perhaps it is only a matter of time before Matthew reaches its peak again.
Matthew is one of the most common names in the U.S. – in all states combined, 1,624,595 people would currently turn around if you called out MATTHEW really loud. Across all states and age groups, this lands Matthew on position 13 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above. With so many people named Matthew, it’s no surprise that the name is widely used in every single state in the U.S., but would you have guessed that Matthew is especially popular in New Hampshire? Here, 1,66% of all male residents bear the name Matthew – that is a total of 8,898 men with this popular name and no other state has as many men named Matthew relative to its population. But that’s not all the popularity: In New Hampshire Matthew even belongs to the top 10 of all male names – the 8,898 men called Matthewelevate their name up to place #9 in the SmartGenius ranking of the most common male names for New Hampshire.
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 seven letters, the name Matthew has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. 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.
If your name is Matthew 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...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Matthew, you can simply say:
Mouse
Apple
Tiger
Tiger
Hat
Elephant
Windmill
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Matthew
Matthew
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
M
A
T
T
H
E
W
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
T
H
E
W
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. Matthew sounds like this:
