Matthew (name)

Matthew
Gender Male
Name day December 10th
Origin
Word/name Hebrew
Meaning "Gift of Yahweh"[1]
Other names
Alternative spelling Mathew
Nickname(s) Matt, Matty, Mattie
Usage Most Common usage of Matthew or Mathew in the English-speaking world[2]
Related names Matthias, Mathias, Mattias, Matias, Mattis, Matis, Mats, Mads
Popularity see popular names

Matthew (/ˈmæθjuː/; MATH-ew) is a Hebrew language given name.

Contents 

Etymology

Matthew ultimately comes from the Hebrew name Matityahu. Saint Matthew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus in Christian theology.[3][4][5][6]

The Hebrew name "מַתִּתְיָהוּ‎" (Matityahu) was transliterated into Greek to "Ματταθίας" (Mattathias),[7] which was shortened to "Ματθαῖος" (Matthaios). The Greek Ματθαῖος was Latinised as Matthaeus, which became Matthew in English.

The name is also sometimes used as an anglicisation of the Irish name Mathúin, meaning bear.[8][9]

Popularity

The name Matthew became popular during the Middle Ages in North-West Europe, and has been very common throughout the English-speaking world since the 1970s.[2] In 2009, Matthew was ranked 23rd most popular name in Ireland, and then 24th most popular name in 2010.[10] During 2014, it was the 17th most popular name in Ireland.[11] In the United Kingdom, it was among the 10 most popular male names through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and was 9th as recently as 2001.[12] Matthew has been in the top 1,000 most popular male names in Australia, Canada and United States.

List

Notable people with the name include:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

J

K

L

M

P

R

S

T

U

W

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/28/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.