Mat
Mat was last recorded in 2013, when 5 babies were given it; 794 Americans have been recorded with it between 1880 and 2013 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mat by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mat mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Mat is “a diminutive of the male given name Matthew.”
/mæt/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mat?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,363, in 2013; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
21 babies in 1917, the peak
Mat peaked in 1917, when 21 boys were given it, #1,622 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 5 | #13,363 | under 0.01 |
| 2010 | 6 | #11,685 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 5 | #7,201 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,804 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 9 | #3,901 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 7 | #4,619 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 8 | #4,056 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 10 | #3,271 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 8 | #3,840 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 10 | #3,198 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (82)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | 11 | #2,799 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 15 | #2,159 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 14 | #2,218 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 10 | #2,712 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 12 | #2,506 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 11 | #2,622 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 9 | #2,976 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 15 | #2,206 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 12 | #2,492 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 17 | #2,015 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 9 | #2,958 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 11 | #2,593 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 6 | #3,795 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 6 | #3,690 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 6 | #3,558 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 6 | #3,611 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 6 | #3,398 | under 0.01 |
| 1943 | 5 | #3,865 | under 0.01 |
| 1942 | 8 | #2,859 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 6 | #3,344 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 5 | #3,796 | under 0.01 |
| 1938 | 7 | #3,062 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 6 | #3,512 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 5 | #4,014 | under 0.01 |
| 1933 | 10 | #2,479 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 10 | #2,570 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 12 | #2,286 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,352 | under 0.01 |
| 1929 | 11 | #2,544 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 13 | #2,348 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 16 | #2,097 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 13 | #2,376 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 11 | #2,692 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 14 | #2,310 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 18 | #1,918 | 0.02 |
| 1922 | 13 | #2,431 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 11 | #2,738 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 9 | #3,121 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 15 | #2,115 | 0.02 |
| 1918 | 19 | #1,803 | 0.02 |
| 1917 | 21 | #1,622 | 0.02 |
| 1916 | 13 | #2,218 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 11 | #2,397 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 9 | #2,387 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 10 | #1,897 | 0.02 |
| 1912 | 8 | #1,991 | 0.02 |
| 1911 | 8 | #1,346 | 0.04 |
| 1910 | 6 | #1,522 | 0.03 |
| 1909 | 7 | #1,231 | 0.04 |
| 1907 | 7 | #1,162 | 0.05 |
| 1905 | 8 | #976 | 0.06 |
| 1902 | 9 | #839 | 0.07 |
| 1900 | 6 | #1,261 | 0.04 |
| 1899 | 8 | #835 | 0.08 |
| 1898 | 9 | #786 | 0.07 |
| 1897 | 5 | #1,172 | 0.04 |
| 1896 | 5 | #1,207 | 0.04 |
| 1895 | 10 | #729 | 0.09 |
| 1894 | 5 | #1,183 | 0.04 |
| 1893 | 7 | #886 | 0.06 |
| 1892 | 7 | #919 | 0.06 |
| 1890 | 8 | #792 | 0.07 |
| 1889 | 6 | #946 | 0.05 |
| 1888 | 10 | #681 | 0.08 |
| 1887 | 8 | #720 | 0.08 |
| 1886 | 11 | #591 | 0.10 |
| 1885 | 13 | #539 | 0.12 |
| 1884 | 17 | #461 | 0.15 |
| 1883 | 7 | #773 | 0.07 |
| 1882 | 12 | #568 | 0.11 |
| 1881 | 15 | #453 | 0.15 |
| 1880 | 16 | #455 | 0.14 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Mat a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Mat has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 82 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Mat: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mat, and how old are they?
An estimated 213 Americans named Mat and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (27% of everyone recorded); the median is 61 years old and half are between 55 and 67. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 2,406 people named Mat (134 women and girls, 2,272 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 244 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9.9 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Mat rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 24,686 babies since 1880, Mat is the second most given (3.2% of them). In 2025 none of their 29 babies recorded by SSA was a Mat (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Mat
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Mat and names like it
- Compare Mat and MattBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sMat peaked in 1917.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Mat since 1910.
- The top names of 1917The year the most babies were named Mat.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Mat alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with MMost given first.