Mattie
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Meaning
diminutive of Martha, 'lady/mistress' (sometimes also short for Matilda)
The story
Mattie grew up as a diminutive of Martha, the Aramaic name meaning lady or mistress of the house, though plenty of Matildas have answered to it too. It belongs to the great age of American nicknames given whole: when the records open in the 1890s, Mattie already stood on its own on birth certificates, no formal name required, and it stayed common through the early decades of the century. Readers will know Mattie Ross, the unshakable fourteen-year-old who narrates True Grit, a character whose plain steel suits the name perfectly. Like most of its vintage, Mattie faded through the midcentury, reaching its quietest point in the 1970s, then turned around: the decades since have brought a slow, steady climb, part of the wider return of grandmother-era nicknames. It now sits at a comfortable middle level, familiar but not everywhere, an old name with its boots on.
The formal names behind Mattie
Mattie is an established short form of each of these names.
Martha · Aramaic origin · lady, mistress; Princess Märtha Louise of Norway, and historically Crown Princess Märtha, celebrated for aiding Norwegian refugees during WWII
Matilda · Germanic origin · battle-mighty
How popular is Mattie around the world?
In the United States, 1,448 babies were named Mattie between 2020 and 2025. In Ireland, 4 boys named Mattie were born in 2025, the 676th most common name among boys that year.
Mattie is on the official records of the United States and Ireland.
United States
1 in 15,000
In the United States, 1,448 babies were named Mattie between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Mattie peaked in the 1890s and the 1900s in nearly equal measure. In US birth records Mattie has stayed between 1,118 and 6,648 births in every decade since the 1950s: a name everyone knows and few children get.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Ireland
1 in 14,000
In Ireland, 4 boys named Mattie were born in 2025, the 676th most common name among boys that year.
The count never rose above 6 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
Canada
last on record 2022
Mattie is not on the 2024 record for Canada, where names under 5 in a year are excluded at source.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
England and Wales
last on record 2022
Mattie is not on the 2025 record for England and Wales, where spellings under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 6 in a year, too few to chart.
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
South Australia
last on record 2012
Mattie is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Mattie deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Mattie 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 Mattie fits with your family’s names and surname.
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