Mathew
Meaning
variant of Matthew, meaning 'gift of God'
The story
Mathew is Matthew with one t, and the record insists it is not a typo: the spelling has continuous American use since the 1890s, echoing much older English and Welsh habits of single-consonant thrift that predate standardized spelling altogether. It rose alongside its double-t sibling through the late century to a plateau across the 1990s through 2010s, always the quieter partner in the pair, and it eased in step. The meaning is unchanged, gift of God, from Hebrew Mattityahu. The one-t form travels with an ancestor's baptismal record behind it as often as with a taste for the leaner look on paper, and it comes with a lifetime of saying one t, please, a correction delivered with the calm of a spelling older than the standard itself.
Mathew around the world
One shared root links 8 names across 5 languages.
Shared root: from Hebrew Mattityahu "gift of Yahweh", via Greek Matthaios
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Mathew peaked in the 1990s and the 2010s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
87 people · the #45,476 first name in Brazil · median age 10
Among people named Mathew living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 25 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Mathew
People given the name Mathew in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1970 to 2009. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Mathew deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Mathew truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Mathew fits with your family’s names and surname.
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