Mathias
Masculine · “gift of Yahweh (gift of God)”
Mathias is the older, greener branch of the same tree as Matthew — both grow from a Hebrew name meaning gift of God, but Mathias keeps the shape the Greek scribes gave it. It has been at home in German, Scandinavian and French mouths for centuries, and it arrives in English with the -thias ending intact: three syllables that land softly rather than snapping shut.
How old is the name Mathias?
Mathias was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Mathias is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 14,000 people named Mathias are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mathias most popular?
Mathias peaked in 2025, reaching #312 nationally. Today it ranks #312, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Mattityahu to Mathias
The story of Mathias
The name begins as Hebrew Mattityahu, borne by priests and warriors in the later books of the Hebrew scriptures. Greek-speaking Jews shortened it to Matthias, and in that form it appears in the Acts of the Apostles, where Matthias is chosen by lot to join the eleven after Judas. From Greek and Latin it spread across Christian Europe and settled into local shapes — Matthias in German-speaking lands, Mattias in Scandinavia, Mátyás in Hungary, Matías in Spain — while the same root also produced the shorter Matthew line that dominates English. Mathias, with a single t and no h before the final s in some spellings, is the continental form that immigrant families carried to the United States and kept.
Meaning
gift of Yahweh (gift of God)
From Hebrew Mattityahu, combining a root meaning gift with the divine name.
How the name formed
- Mattityahu
- Matthias
- Mathias
Related forms: Matthias · Matías · Mattias · Mátyás · Matthijs · Matyáš
Pronouncing Mathias
muh-THY-us
That is the usual American reading. German and Scandinavian speakers say mah-TEE-ahs, and French speakers ma-TYAHSS — all three are correct for the name, so it is worth deciding which one your family will use.
Nicknames for Mathias
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20251,087 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #312reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +35.0%1,087 in 2025, from 805
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Mathias in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Matthias in German — spelling variant
- Matías in Spanish — same name
- Mattias in Swedish/Norwegian — spelling variant
- Mátyás in Hungarian — same name
- Matthijs in Dutch — related form
- Matyáš in Czech — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Mathiass among us
people named Mathias are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,571 born in 2025 was named Mathias
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mathias
- #312
- Mathias on the 2025 chart
- #195
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mathias went to 1,087 boys in 2025, but Matthias is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 1,941, which makes it the 195th most-given boys’ name of the year — 117 places above the chart.
- Mathias1,087
- Matthias854
About 1 boy in 880 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,571 for Mathias itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rodolfo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mathias's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rodolfo climbed just as high around 1981, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rodolfo's path sketches the road Mathias is walking now.
Mathias is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Mathias is headed
Mathias looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Mathias beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mathias in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Carries a meaning that is settled rather than argued over, and one parents can state in four words: gift of God.
- Recognizable in German, Spanish, Scandinavian, Hungarian and Czech, each with its own established spelling.
- Comes with ready-made short forms — Matt, Matty, Mats — none of which had to be invented.
- A documented line running from the Hebrew scriptures through Greek and Latin into modern European use.
- Familiar in sound to anyone who knows Matthew, while still being distinct in a classroom.
- The spelling will need repeating. Matthias, Mattias, Matias and Mathias all circulate, and people who hear the name spoken will guess wrong roughly as often as right.
- Pronunciation is genuinely split between muh-THY-us and mah-TEE-ahs, so a Mathias may spend his life correcting one or the other — or answering to both.
- Shortened to Matt, he joins a very large crowd, since the Matthew line supplies most of them.
- The name's rise here is recent, so most people carrying it are still young; older Americans are more likely to have met Matthews than Mathiases.
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What they receive
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Mathias
Masculine · #312 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mathiass are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 14,000 people named Mathias are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mathias?
- Mathias is the most-used spelling in US records — 1,087 of the 1,941 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Matthias.
- How popular is the name Mathias in 2025?
- Mathias ranks #312 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,087 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mathias?
- About 1 in every 1,571 US boys born in 2025 was named Mathias — 1,087 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mathias with classmates?
- Mathias will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mathias
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eliam#313 · Colson#310 · Banks#310 · Sullivan#314 · Israel#315 · Tristan#309 · Dante#308 · Blake#316
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mathias? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mathias and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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