Name Rarity Checker / How rare is Matthew
How Rare Is the Name Matthew?
Matthew is a top-twenty name of all time. It ranks 15th in U.S. records, with about 1 in 225 people sharing it, which puts it in the Common tier. It was most popular in the 1980s. Here is the full picture, decade by decade, plus a card you can save and share.
- Rarity
- 1 in 225
- Tier
- Common
- U.S. rank
- 15th
- Share of people
- 0.444%
- People named
- 1,652,565
- Most popular
- the 1980s
Based on U.S. births recorded by the Social Security Administration, 1880 to 2024. Figures describe recorded names, not people alive today.
About the name Matthew
Matthew is from the Hebrew Mattityahu, meaning 'gift of God.' It was quiet through the early 1900s and then surged hard in the 1970s and 1980s, which is why the name reads as a Gen X and millennial marker.
Want to check a different name? Try the Name Rarity Checker. First names are only half the picture: the surname rarity checker runs the same math on last names, using the Census surname file.
Frequently asked questions
- How rare is the name Matthew?
- Matthew is in the Common tier. About 1 in 225 people share it, which is 0.444% of all recorded U.S. names, and it ranks 15th of all time. In total 1,652,565 Americans have been given the name since 1880.
- Is Matthew a rare name?
- No. Matthew is a well-known name rather than a rare one. It is in the Common tier, ranked 15th of all time, with about 1 in 225 people sharing it.
- How common is the name Matthew?
- About 1 in 225 people in U.S. records share the name Matthew, which is 0.444% of all recorded names and 15th of all time. That places it in the Common tier.
- Is Matthew a boy or girl name?
- In the records, Matthew is given almost entirely to boys. Of 1,652,565 people with the name, 5,575 were girls and 1,646,990 were boys.
- When was the name Matthew most popular?
- Matthew peaked in the 1980s. The bars on the card show its popularity for every decade from 1880 to 2024.