Mathias
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- "Variant Of Matthias, Biblical Name Meaning"
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Mathias
Mathias is the German, Scandinavian, and French alternate spelling of Matthias, descending from the Greek Mattathias, ultimately from the Hebrew Mattityahu meaning "gift of Yahweh." The biblical Matthias is the apostle chosen by lot to replace Judas Iscariot among the Twelve Apostles after Judas's betrayal of Jesus and subsequent suicide (Acts 1:15–26).
Notable bearers include the iconic Norwegian conductor Mathias Tellier; the historic Holy Roman Emperor Mathias II (1557–1619, the Habsburg emperor who reigned over the Holy Roman Empire 1612–1619); and the contemporary American actor Mathias Tonnessen.
Mathias's American climb is part of the broader 21st-century American taste for distinctive Old Testament-derived boys' names alongside Tobias, Elias, and Ezra. The name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2010 to the US top 300 boys' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. The name has been driven primarily by Spanish-American, Scandinavian-American, and German-American naming. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Hebrew-Greek-Latin-multi-cultural pedigree, the in-built apostolic-religious anchor, and the popular three-syllable structure with the distinctive M-T-S consonant rhythm. Three flowing syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to multi-cultural names. The name reads as both classical-religious and contemporary American. Common nicknames Matty (the dominant warm short form, casual and warm — shared with the related Matthew), Matt, Mat, Mati, and the rare Hias each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Mathias, Matthias, Mateo, Matheus, and Matías (Spanish, with accent) have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Matthias (English/German), Matías (Spanish/Portuguese, with accent), Mattia (Italian), Mateusz (Polish), and the original Hebrew Mattityahu.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Mathias
US Popularity History (2003–2025)
Annual US births named Mathias by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 1,087 boys named Mathias (boy rank #312 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Mathias Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Mathias the strongest states are Florida, New Mexico, Connecticut.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | #248 | 748 |
| 2 | New Mexico | #277 | 71 |
| 3 | Connecticut | #305 | 93 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #313 | 261 |
| 5 | California | #316 | 1,127 |
| 6 | New York | #339 | 484 |
| 7 | Texas | #346 | 989 |
| 8 | Nebraska | #368 | 30 |
| 9 | Arizona | #373 | 193 |
| 10 | Idaho | #383 | 31 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Mathias in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Mathias?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Mathias to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Mathias against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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