Name Awesome

Matei

#6,677 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Matthew

Matei has been given to 281 babies in the U.S. since 1996. In 2025 it ranked #6,677 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2019, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Matei, 2025

1 in 255,000

Matei over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Matei: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Matthew

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Matei means

Matei is a form of Matthew.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Matei → Matthew → Matthaeus. The family’s meaning is “gift of YHWH (the Lord)”, recorded in Latin with the source elements Mattiṯyāhū.

Origin, language, and formation

Matei is used in Romanian.

Matei comes through Ancient Greek Ματθαῖος.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Matthew.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 281 boys were recorded with the name Matei between 1996 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 19 in 2019; its best national rank was #5,082 in 2019.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,873 in 2020 to #6,677 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #7,371 in 2015 to #6,677 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Matei?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 255,000
13 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 131,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#6,677
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
176,762 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Matei sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 176,762 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Matei. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Mateis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Matei was born before 2014 — so the typical Matei is around 11 today.

Median birth year
2014
About 11 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
42.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
96.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
281
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 42.7% of all recorded uses (120).

Is Matei rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−1,313
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−804
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+694
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.18×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
68.4%
Peak was 2019 (19)
Years since peak
6
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
43.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#5,082
2019

Spellings of Matei

Matei is not the most common spelling — Mateo is, with 35.4% against Matei's 0.08%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Matei around the world

Where Matei ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2005–2025
    #379
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2016–2024
    #619
    in 2024
  • Northern Ireland
    2016–2025
    #344
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2007–2025
    #262
    in 2025
  • France
    1996–2025
    #725
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1998–2022
    #2,602
    in 2022

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Matei by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#6,677
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 804
Best rank ever
#5,082
2019
Peak year
2019
19 that year
First recorded
1996
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
281
Count in 2025
13

Names similar to Matei

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MatinMattyMataiMatisMatixMatveyMattiaMatanMatyasMattisMattixMateenMatrixMataeoMataioMatthanMattoxMattheoMathiusMatisseMatveiMatviyMatejMato

Sibling names for Matei

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Matei

Top names of 2019, Matei's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2019Boys' names starting with MRomanian Boy NamesRomanian Names