Matty
Diminutive form of the masculine name Matthew, ultimately from the Hebrew name Mattityahu.
Name Census estimates that about 706 living Americans carry the first name Matty. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 82.1% of registrations being female. The average person named Matty today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Matty births was 2015 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Matty. 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 Matty with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
706
~ 1 in 485,488 Americans
Peak year
2015
30 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,528
Tracked since 1904
Census
Matty in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,384 people with the first name Matty, which placed it at #9,856 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
#9,856
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,384 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Matty
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Matty is White at 67.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.1%) and Black (8.2%). 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 Matty 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 Matty at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.5% · 934
- Hispanic or Latino17.1% · 237
- Black or African American8.2% · 113
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 48
- Two or more races3.0% · 41
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Matty
Matty leans heavily female at 82.1% of total registrations, but 161 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Matty as a male name
- Ranked #9,528 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1919 (10 births)
Matty as a female name
- Ranked #9,972 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (28 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Matty on both sides of the split. Of the 1,382 people counted with this name, 349 were male (25.3%) and 1,033 were female (74.7%).
Popularity
Matty: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Matty from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 198 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Matty remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Matty 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 Matty during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mattys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Matty
The name Matty is a diminutive form of the name Matthew, which has its origins in the Hebrew name Mattityahu. Mattityahu is derived from the Hebrew words "mattan" meaning "gift" and "Yah" referring to the Hebrew God. The name Matthew was later adopted into Greek as "Maththaios" and then into Latin as "Matthaeus."
The name Matthew is of great significance in Christianity as it is the name of one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ and the author of the first Gospel in the New Testament. The Gospel of Matthew, written in the late 1st century AD, provides an account of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Matty can be found in the 13th century. Matty de Wendene was an English clergyman who served as the Bishop of Winchester from 1234 to 1238. Another notable bearer of the name was Matty Bell, an English painter and engraver who lived from 1580 to 1642.
In the 16th century, Matty Niño de Guevara was a Spanish nobleman and military leader who participated in the conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru. He was born in 1505 and died in 1572.
During the 19th century, Matty Wilks was an American baseball player who played for several teams, including the Providence Grays and the Boston Beaneaters, between 1872 and 1891.
In the 20th century, Matty Banatwala was an Indian cricketer who played for the Indian national team in the 1970s and 1980s. He was born in 1948 and played his last international match in 1984.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Matty. The name has enjoyed enduring popularity across various cultures and time periods, reflecting its rich historical and linguistic heritage.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Matty
People
Matty + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Matty 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
Matty: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Matty?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 706 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Matty 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 485,488 US residents.
Is Matty a common name?
We classify Matty as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 898 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Matty most popular?
The single biggest year for Matty was 2015, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Matty is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Matty in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,384 people with the name Matty, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,856 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 Matty 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 Matty?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Matty on both sides of the split. Of the 1,382 people counted with this name, 349 were male (25.3%) and 1,033 were female (74.7%). 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 Matty?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Matty is White at 67.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.1%) and Black (8.2%). 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 Matty most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Matty in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.5% (934 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 Matty in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Matty a female name?
Yes, 82.1% of people registered as Matty in the SSA data are female. 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 Matty still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Matty 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 Matty 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 are called Matty?
You can see how many Americans are named Matty on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.