Humanverse

Mathew vs Mattox

American parents have registered 77,745 Mathews since 1880, against 702 Mattoxes. Mathew is still ahead, with 235 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mathew against Mattox, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mathew Mattox

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Mathew has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2020, when Mathew had 352 and Mattox had 30.

Side by side

  Mathew Mattox
Total US births 77,745702
Most in one year 2,18447
Babies in 2025 23517
Estimated living today 68,000700
Median age today 3512
Peak year 19902015
Best rank 148th boys2,600th boys
Rank in 2025 973rd5,399th
First recorded 18802002
Girls / boys 207 / 77,53824 / 678

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Mathews alive today are over 35; half the Mattoxes are over 12. That is 23 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Mathew and Mattox.