Matheus
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,606 living Americans carry the first name Matheus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Matheus today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Matheus births was 2007 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Matheus. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Matheus with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Matheus is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 213,421 Americans
Peak year
2007
104 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,407
Tracked since 1988
Census
Matheus in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,418 people with the first name Matheus, which placed it at #6,587 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,587
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,418 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Matheus
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Matheus is White at 77.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.5%) and Black (5.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Matheus described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Matheus at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.1% · 1,865
- Hispanic or Latino9.5% · 229
- Black or African American5.9% · 143
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 89
- Two or more races3.4% · 82
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 10
Popularity
Matheus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Matheus from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 660 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Matheus remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Matheus by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Matheus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Matheus' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Matheus, while Pennsylvania, Georgia, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 117 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Matheus
The name Matheus has its origins in the Greek language, with the root name being Maththaios. This name is derived from the Hebrew name Mattithyahu, which means "gift of God." The name was prevalent in ancient times, particularly in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions.
Matheus is a variant spelling of the more common name Matthew, which is found in the New Testament of the Bible. One of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ was named Matthew, who was a tax collector before becoming a disciple. This biblical reference contributed to the widespread use of the name among early Christians.
In the 1st century AD, a Greek philosopher and mathematician named Matheus of Bithynia lived during the Roman Empire. He is known for his contributions to the field of mathematics and for his work on the study of prime numbers.
During the Middle Ages, Saint Matheus was a 9th-century Benedictine monk and abbot of the monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno in present-day Italy. He is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church, and his feast day is celebrated on September 16th.
In the 15th century, Matheus de Cracovia, also known as Matthew of Cracow, was a Polish philosopher, mathematician, and logician. He made significant contributions to the development of logic and is considered one of the most important thinkers of the Late Medieval period.
Fast forward to the 19th century, Matheus Ferreira Nobre was a Brazilian military officer and politician who served as the President of Brazil for a brief period in 1910.
Another notable bearer of the name Matheus was Matheus Fritzsch, a German-born American chemist and inventor who lived from 1819 to 1878. He is best known for his work on the development of photographic processes and his contributions to the field of photochemistry.
These examples illustrate the rich history and diverse cultural backgrounds associated with the name Matheus, spanning various disciplines, including religion, philosophy, mathematics, politics, and science.
People
Matheus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Matheus as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Matheus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Matheus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,606 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Matheus going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 213,421 US residents.
Is Matheus a common name?
We classify Matheus as "Rare". It ranks above 92.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,623 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Matheus most popular?
The single biggest year for Matheus was 2007, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Matheus is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Matheus in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,418 people with the name Matheus, or 0.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,587 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Matheus in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Matheus?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Matheus appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,421 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Matheus?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Matheus is White at 77.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.5%) and Black (5.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Matheus most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Matheus in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.1% (1,865 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Matheus in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Matheus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Matheus in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Matheus still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Matheus in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Matheus can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Matheus?
You can see how many people have the name Matheus on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.