Name Awesome

Mats

Boys' name

Gift of God, through Mattias

Mats has been given to 83 babies in the U.S. since 1986. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2003, with 9 recorded.

Babies named Mats, 2018

1 in 703,000

Mats over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02.557.51018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Mats: meaning, origin, and history

Gift of God, through Mattias

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Mats means

Mats belongs to the name family reached through Mats → Mattias → Matthias. Its meaning is “gift of God”.

Origin, language, and formation

Mats is used in Estonian, Faroese, Norwegian and Swedish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Mattias, Mathias, Mads and Matthias.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 83 boys were recorded with the name Mats between 1986 and 2018. Its highest annual count was 9 in 2003; its best national rank was #6,437 in 1986.

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 Mats?

Mats had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2018, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2018
1 in 703,000
5 of 3,516,853 births
Among boys only
1 in 363,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2018
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
487,541 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Mats 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 2018 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 487,541 children born in 2018 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Mats. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Matss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Mats was born before 2005 — so the typical Mats is around 20 today.

Median birth year
2005
About 20 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
47.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
92.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
83
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 47.0% of all recorded uses (39).

Is Mats 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 2003 (9)
Years since peak
22
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
8.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#6,437
1986

Spellings of Mats

Mats is not the most common spelling — Mark is, with 65.9% against Mats's <0.01%.

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.

Mats around the world

Where Mats 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
    2003–2020
    #4,608
    in 2020
  • France
    1987–2021
    #4,785
    in 2021
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #221
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1998–2022
    #2,959
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1973–1973
    #454
    in 1973

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Mats by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#6,437
1986
Peak year
2003
9 that year
First recorded
1986
Last recorded
2018
All-time count
83
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Mats

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

MatoMateMatisMathMatiMattyMatveiMatviyMataoMataioMataeoMatrixMateiMattiMatinMatviiMatyasMatasMataiMatejMatixMatuaMatrimMatvey

Sibling names for Mats

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 Mats

Top names of 2003, Mats's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1986Boys' names starting with M