Matson
A masculine name of Scandinavian origin meaning "son of Matthew".
Name Census estimates that about 237 living Americans carry the first name Matson. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Matson today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Matson births was 2011 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Matson. 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.
People living today
237
~ 1 in 1,446,221 Americans
Peak year
2011
15 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,709
Tracked since 1955
Census
Matson in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 294 people with the first name Matson, which placed it at #29,893 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
#29,893
National first-name rank
People counted
294
294 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Matson
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Matson is White at 75.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (7.1%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Matson 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 Matson at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.9% · 223
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.1% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 18
- Two or more races5.4% · 16
- Black or African American5.1% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Matson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Matson from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 110 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Matson remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Matson 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 Matson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Matson
The given name Matson has its origins in the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Norse people who inhabited Scandinavia and parts of northern Europe during the Viking Age (793-1066 AD). The name Matson is derived from the Old Norse words "matr" and "sonr," meaning "food" and "son," respectively. This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who was responsible for providing food or provisions, such as a cook or a steward.
In the early medieval period, the name Matson was most common in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, where it was used as a patronymic surname, indicating the son of a person named "Matr." Over time, the name transitioned from being a surname to a given name in its own right.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Matson can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of historical and semi-historical narratives written in the 13th and 14th centuries. In the "Saga of the Greenlanders," a character named Matson Karlsson is mentioned as one of the early Norse settlers in Greenland.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Matson. One of the most famous was Matson Liliequist (1615-1686), a Swedish nobleman and military commander who served as the governor of Riga during the Swedish Empire's control of present-day Latvia.
In the 19th century, Matson Rungius (1834-1920) was a prominent Swedish painter and illustrator known for his depictions of rural life and landscapes. His works are displayed in several museums in Sweden and Norway.
Another notable bearer of the name was Matson Sivertsen (1866-1945), a Norwegian sailor and polar explorer who participated in several expeditions to the Arctic regions in the early 20th century. He was a member of the crew on Roald Amundsen's famous expedition to the South Pole in 1911.
In the field of literature, Matson Liljengren (1889-1968) was a Swedish author and playwright who wrote several novels and plays exploring themes of love, relationships, and social issues.
Finally, Matson Skoghall (1929-2018) was a Swedish athlete and Olympic gold medalist in the sport of cross-country skiing. He won the 15 km event at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California.
People
Matson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Matson 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
Matson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Matson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 237 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Matson 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 1,446,221 US residents.
Is Matson a common name?
We classify Matson as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 241 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Matson most popular?
The single biggest year for Matson was 2011, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Matson is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Matson in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 294 people with the name Matson, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,893 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 Matson 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 Matson?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Matson leans strongly male. 267 people counted with this name were male (92.4%), compared with 22 female bearers (7.6%). 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 Matson?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Matson is White at 75.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (7.1%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Matson most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Matson in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.9% (223 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 Matson in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Matson a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Matson 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 Matson still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Matson 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 Matson 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 Americans are named Matson?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.