Mathew
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 68,523 living Americans carry the first name Mathew. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mathew today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mathew births was 1990 (2,184 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mathew. 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 Mathew with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mathew is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 207 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
69K
~ 1 in 5,002 Americans
Peak year
1990
2,184 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#939
Tracked since 1880
Census
Mathew in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 71,770 people with the first name Mathew, which placed it at #714 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
#714
National first-name rank
People counted
72K
71,770 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
23.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mathew
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mathew is White at 68.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.5%). 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 Mathew 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 Mathew at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.4% · 49,105
- Hispanic or Latino18.6% · 13,368
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 3,913
- Black or African American3.4% · 2,415
- Two or more races3.3% · 2,358
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 611
Gender
Gender distribution for Mathew
Out of the 77,505 babies given the name Mathew since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Mathew as a male name
- Ranked #939 in 2024
- 244 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (2,174 births)
Mathew as a female name
- Ranked #16,664 in 2000
- 5 female births in 2000
- Peak: 1985 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mathew appears almost entirely male. Of the 71,761 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Mathew: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mathew from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 18,725 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mathew 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 Mathew during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mathews live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Mathew, while Delaware, District of Columbia, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,401 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mathew
The given name Mathew is derived from the Hebrew name Matityahu, which means "gift of Yahweh" or "gift of God". It originates from the ancient Israelite culture and can be traced back to the Old Testament era. The earliest recorded use of the name Mathew is found in the Bible's New Testament, where it refers to one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, also known as Levi the tax collector.
The name Mathew gained widespread popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in Europe, where it was commonly spelled as Matthew. It was a popular choice among Christian families due to its Biblical origins and association with the apostle. Some notable historical figures who bore this name include Matthew the Evangelist, one of the four authors of the Gospels, who lived in the 1st century AD.
During the Renaissance period, the name Mathew continued to be widely used across Europe. One of the most famous individuals with this name was the Italian Renaissance painter Matteo da Bassano, born in 1420 and known for his religious paintings and frescoes. Another notable figure was the English playwright and poet Matthew Prior, born in 1664, who was a prominent figure in the Augustan Age of English literature.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the name Mathew remained popular in various parts of the world. Matthew Flinders, an English navigator and cartographer, born in 1774, is remembered for his pioneering exploration of the Australian coastline and for being the first person to circumnavigate the continent. Matthew Arnold, an English poet and cultural critic, born in 1822, was a significant figure in the Victorian era and is renowned for his works such as "Dover Beach" and "The Scholar Gipsy".
In the 20th century, the name Mathew gained popularity in various cultural contexts. One of the most famous individuals with this name was the English actor and comedian Matthew Broderick, born in 1962, known for his roles in films such as "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Lion King". Matthew McConaughey, an American actor born in 1969, is another notable figure, known for his roles in movies like "Dallas Buyers Club" and "Interstellar".
People
Mathew + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mathew 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
Mathew: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mathew?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 68,523 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mathew 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 5,002 US residents.
Is Mathew a common name?
We classify Mathew as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 77,505 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mathew most popular?
The single biggest year for Mathew was 1990, when 2,184 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mathew is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mathew in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 71,770 people with the name Mathew, or 23.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #714 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 Mathew 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 Mathew?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mathew appears almost entirely male. Of the 71,761 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Mathew?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mathew is White at 68.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.5%). 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 Mathew most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mathew in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.4% (49,105 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 Mathew in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mathew a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Mathew 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 Mathew still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mathew 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 Mathew 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 common is the name Mathew?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.