Matthew was the third-most-popular boys' name in America for most of the 1980s. The 1983 peak put more than 60,000 boys onto U.S. birth certificates with the name in a single year. Forty years later, the name has fallen to its lowest ranking since the 1950s — and in 2024 it has been overtaken in the U.S. by its Spanish form, Mateo, for the first time.
The tax collector who became an evangelist
Matthew comes from the Hebrew Mattityahu, meaning "gift of God" — entering English through the Greek Mattheos and the Latin Matthaeus. The biblical Matthew was one of the twelve apostles, traditionally identified as the author of the first Gospel and a former tax collector for the Roman administration in Galilee. The combination — a despised civil servant transformed into an evangelist — gave the name a redemption arc that sustained its popularity across Western Christian tradition.
The name's continuous European use traces back to medieval Christianity, with strong representation in English-, French-, German-, Spanish-, and Italian-speaking traditions. Each language produced its own form: Matthew (English), Matthias and Matthieu (French), Matteo (Italian), Mateo (Spanish), Matthias (German), Matvei (Russian).
The 1980s peak in context
Matthew's late-20th-century rise is one of the most visible naming trends in American postwar history. From a 1950s rank around #50, the name climbed to top 5 by the early 1980s and held there for nearly two decades. Demographers have linked the surge to the broader return of biblical names that began in the 1970s alongside Jacob, Joshua, and Daniel.
Common 1980s-era pairings made Matthew Michael, Matthew James, and Matthew David common combinations. The natural nickname Matt has its own SSA trajectory but has remained the dominant casual form for adult Matthews, with Matty serving as a childhood diminutive.
The counter-reading: is Matthew now dated?
The conventional read in 2025 is that Matthew has aged into a generationally-coded name — heavily associated with men currently in their 30s and 40s. The SSA data supports this. Matthew has fallen from a 1983 peak count above 60,000 to roughly 6,000 in 2024 — a decline of 90% in absolute usage, alongside a rank drop from #3 to #33.
For parents weighing Matthew in 2025, the name carries a clear generational signal that Joseph or David do not. A Matthew born today will share the name with his uncles and his teachers, but with relatively few of his classmates. Whether that is a feature or a flaw depends on whether the family wants the name to feel deeply familiar (yes) or generationally distinctive (less so). The biblical and apostolic roots remain as anchoring depth regardless of where the rank goes next.