Humanverse

Mattie vs Mattye

American parents have registered 133,859 Matties since 1880, against 543 Mattyes. Mattie is still ahead, with 249 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Mattie Mattye

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 1987, when Mattie had 216 and Mattye had 6.

Side by side

  Mattie Mattye
Total US births 133,859543
Most in one year 2,91319
Babies in 2025 249under 5
Estimated living today 30,00090
Median age today 6982
Peak year 19201925
Best rank 96th girls2,018th girls
Rank in 2025 1,004thunranked
First recorded 18801883
Girls / boys 133,079 / 780543 / 0

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 Mattyes alive today are over 82; half the Matties are over 69. That is 13 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: Mattie and Mattye.