Mathias
A Greek form of Matthew, meaning "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 13,140 living Americans carry the first name Mathias. It sits at #337 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mathias today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mathias births was 2024 (1,031 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mathias. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Mathias with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Mathias is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 26,085 Americans
Peak year
2024
1,031 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#337
Tracked since 1880
Census
Mathias in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,633 people with the first name Mathias, which placed it at #2,524 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,524
National first-name rank
People counted
9.6K
9,633 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
40.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mathias
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mathias is Hispanic at 40.6%. The next largest groups are White (40.3%) and Black (9.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Mathias described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Mathias at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino40.6% · 3,915
- White40.3% · 3,883
- Black or African American9.3% · 899
- Two or more races5.9% · 573
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 215
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 148
Popularity
Mathias: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mathias from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,175 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mathias remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mathias by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Mathias during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mathias' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Mathias, while West Virginia, South Dakota, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 234 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mathias
The given name Mathias has its origins in the Hebrew name Mattityahu, which means "gift of Yahweh" or "gift of God". This name is derived from the Hebrew words "mattat" meaning "gift" and "Yah" which is a shortened form of the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh. The name was eventually Hellenized into the Greek form Matthias during the time of the New Testament.
The name Matthias is mentioned in the Bible's New Testament as one of the first disciples of Jesus Christ. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Matthias was chosen by the remaining eleven apostles to replace Judas Iscariot after Judas betrayed Jesus and committed suicide. Matthias was selected by casting lots, which was a common practice at the time to determine God's will.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Mathias was Saint Matthias, the apostle mentioned in the New Testament. He lived in the 1st century AD and is venerated as a saint in Christianity. Another early figure with this name was Matthias Corvinus, also known as Matthias I, who was the King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 until his death in 1490.
During the Middle Ages, Mathias was a popular name among royalty and nobility in various European countries. One notable figure was Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor, who ruled from 1612 to 1619. Another was Matthias of Arras, a 13th-century French architect and sculptor who is known for his work on the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris.
In the 16th century, Mathias Grünewald was a renowned German Renaissance painter, best known for his altarpiece in the Isenheim Altarpiece, completed in 1515. Mathias Rust, a German aviator, gained notoriety in 1987 when he illegally landed a small plane near the Red Square in Moscow, an event that became a symbolic act of protest against the Soviet regime.
Other notable individuals with the name Mathias include Mathias Sandorf, a fictional character created by Jules Verne in his novel "Mathias Sandorf" published in 1885. Matthias Buchinger was an 18th-century German artist and calligrapher who was born without hands or feet and achieved remarkable skill in his craft.
People
Mathias + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mathias as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mathias: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mathias?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,140 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mathias going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 26,085 US residents.
Is Mathias a common name?
We classify Mathias as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,452 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mathias most popular?
The single biggest year for Mathias was 2024, when 1,031 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mathias is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mathias in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,633 people with the name Mathias, or 3.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,524 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Mathias in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Mathias?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mathias appears almost entirely male. Of the 9,628 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Mathias?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mathias is Hispanic at 40.6%. The next largest groups are White (40.3%) and Black (9.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Mathias most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Mathias in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.6% (3,915 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Mathias in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mathias a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mathias in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Mathias still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mathias in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Mathias can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Mathias?
You can see how many people have the name Mathias on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.