Nicknames for Matthew
33 ideas for Matthew — the short forms people actually use, plus cute, funny and gamer versions. Copy any of them in one click.
- Matt the default, and almost the only one needed
- Matty the affectionate form
- Mattie the ie spelling
- Matts the friend version
- Mat the one-t spelling
- Matteo the Italian form
- Mateo the Spanish form
- Mathieu the French form
- Matvey the Russian form
- Mateus the Portuguese form
- Mateusz the Polish form
- Máté the Hungarian form
- Matthias the German cousin form
- Mattias the Scandinavian spelling
- Matti the Finnish form
- Matko the Croatian affectionate form
- Mateo-José the Hispanic compound, said whole
- M initial only, in group chats
- Matty-Boy the affectionate compound
- Matt-Bear the family affectionate pattern
- Doormat the tease every Matt has survived
- Gift of God what the Hebrew Mattityahu means
- Big Matt the team-sport version
- Matty-Ice the sports nickname, borrowed widely
- Mattress the schoolyard joke, said with affection
- Maty Matthew with the ending people add when they like you.
- Matie Matthew with the ending people add when they like you.
- Mato Matthew with the ending people add when they like you.
- Ma-ma The opening sound of Matthew, doubled.
- Thys A short form people genuinely use for Matthew.
- Merry Matthew Shares the "M" sound with Matthew.
- Thias A short form people genuinely use for Matthew.
- Matu Matthew with the ending people add when they like you.
About the name Matthew.
Gift of God, contracted out of Hebrew Mattityahu, and the apostle attached to it worked as a tax collector before he wrote a gospel, which gives the name a better backstory than most of the evangelist four. English use took hold after the Reformation, but the American surge is recent and tightly bounded: nearly absent before 1960, top five for most of the 1980s and 1990s, then a decline quicker than Andrew's or Daniel's. It pairs so reliably with Michael, Christopher and Nicholas across that cohort that a 1988 class list reads like a matched set. The doubled t is not ornamental either, it preserves the consonants of the Hebrew original.
Friendly, athletic, and firmly stamped with the late twentieth century. Two syllables ending in a vowel sound give it a lightness that Michael and Robert do not have. Matt is so standard that the long form now sounds slightly formal by comparison, closer to a job application than a conversation.
Most popular around 1990. Based on US birth records.
- Origin
- Hebrew
- Meaning
- gift of God
- Syllables
- Matt·hew
- Used as
- a boys’ name
Matthew around the world.
These are the real forms Matthew takes in other languages, which often make excellent nicknames in their own right.
-
Matteo
Italian
-
Mateo
Spanish
-
Mathieu
French
-
Matvey
Russian
-
Mateus
Portuguese
Famous people called Matthew.
-
Matthew McConaughey
Texan actor, Oscar winner
-
Matthew Perry
actor from Friends
-
Matthew Arnold
Victorian poet and critic
Questions about the name Matthew
Matt or Matty? +
Matt handles almost all daily use and is one of the cleanest clippings in English, taking the first syllable and stopping. Matty and Mattie survive in Irish and northern British usage and among family, and they tend to sound affectionate rather than neutral.
What does Matthew mean? +
Gift of Yahweh, from the Hebrew Mattityahu, which combines mattath, gift, with a shortened form of the divine name. Greek rendered it Matthaios and Latin Matthaeus, and the double consonant in the English spelling comes down from those intermediate stages.
Is Matthew still widely used? +
It has fallen a long way. Top five through the late 1980s and 1990s, it now sits outside the top fifty and continues to drift. The Italian and Spanish forms Matteo and Mateo have meanwhile risen in America, so the sound persists under different spellings.
Matthew or Mathew, which spelling is right? +
Both exist, but the double t version outnumbers the single t by a very wide margin in English-speaking countries. Mathew shows up mainly in Welsh records and in Indian Christian communities, where it reflects a different transmission route into English.