Humanverse

Matie vs Mattie

American parents have registered 133,859 Matties since 1880, against 579 Maties. Mattie is still ahead, with 249 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Matie against Mattie, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Matie Mattie

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

Mattie 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 1880, when Matie had 20 and Mattie had 709.

Side by side

  Matie Mattie
Total US births 579133,859
Most in one year 262,913
Babies in 2025 under 5249
Estimated living today 830,000
Median age today 1669
Peak year 18841920
Best rank 391st girls96th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,004th
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 579 / 0133,079 / 780

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 Matties alive today are over 69; half the Maties are over 16. That is 53 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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