Meaning of the nameMateus

Mateus is a masculine name of Hebrew origin, from Mattityahu, which the Brazilian names dictionary translates as 'gift of God', the name of one of the twelve apostles.

Meaning

“gift of God”

Source: Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Mateus · Behind the Name: Matthew

More names that mean gift

People (2022): 476,684
Rank in Brazil: #49
Median age: 19 years
2010 Census: 588,819; people

Mateus in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Mateus, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 2000s (196,744 people).

3,272 women 473,412 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Mateus is most common

States with the highest share of people named Mateus in the population, in the 2022 Census.

All states

State	People	% of population
São Paulo	94,583	0.213%
Minas Gerais	58,083	0.283%
Bahia	33,748	0.239%
Paraná	31,710	0.277%
Rio Grande do Sul	30,248	0.278%
Rio de Janeiro	28,442	0.177%
Santa Catarina	22,119	0.291%
Pará	21,990	0.271%
Ceará	18,540	0.211%
Pernambuco	17,857	0.197%
Goiás	17,831	0.253%
Maranhão	16,220	0.239%
Espírito Santo	10,249	0.267%
Amazonas	9,287	0.236%
Mato Grosso	8,745	0.239%
Paraíba	8,126	0.204%
Distrito Federal	7,370	0.262%
Piauí	6,643	0.203%
Mato Grosso do Sul	6,176	0.224%
Rio Grande do Norte	6,161	0.187%
Rondônia	4,712	0.298%
Alagoas	4,536	0.145%
Sergipe	4,018	0.182%
Tocantins	3,695	0.245%
Acre	2,193	0.264%
Amapá	2,028	0.276%
Roraima	1,374	0.216%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Mateus

Wiktionary traces Mateus from Old Portuguese Mateus, Latin Matthaeus and Greek Ματθαῖος to Hebrew מַתִּתְיָהוּ (Mattityahu). The Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil (Dictionary of Names in Use in Brazil), citing Machado (1981), links the name to Hebrew Mattathiah, 'gift of God', and Behind the Name gives the roots mattaṯ and Yahweh. It is the name of the apostle Mateus in the New Testament. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 476,684 people named Mateus, with a median age of 19. Matheus, with TH, is the variant that Wiktionary and Behind the Name also record.

This is the spelling without H, the one in the main entry of Wiktionary and of the Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil.

Other spellings of Mateus

Spelling	People (2022)
Matheus	652,373
Mateus	476,684

Sources

Wiktionary: Mateus · en.wiktionary.org · origin
Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Mateus · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · meaning
Behind the Name: Matthew · behindthename.com · meaning

Questions about the name Mateus

What does the name Mateus mean?

Mateus means “gift of God”, according to Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil and Behind the Name.

How many people are named Mateus in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 476,684 people with the first name Mateus, which ranks it number 49 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 2000s.

Is Mateus a boy's or a girl's name?

Mateus is a male name: in the 2022 Census, 3,272 women and 473,412 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Mateus?

Mateus is a name of Hebrew origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.

In which Brazilian state is Mateus most common?

Proportionally, in Rondônia: 0.298% of the state's population is named Mateus (4,712 people), according to the 2022 Census.

What are the other spellings of Mateus?

Matheus. IBGE counts each spelling separately.

Names that also mean gift

See all

More names of Hebrew origin

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Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Mateus with a source. See the methodology.