How popular is the baby name Matthew in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Matthew.

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Popularity of the baby name Matthew


Posts that mention the name Matthew

Popular baby names in the Channel Islands, 2021

Flag of Jersey
Flag of Jersey

The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel. They are divided into two territories — the bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey — and, like the Isle of Man, they are Crown Dependencies, but not officially part of the UK. (The residents of all three regions are British citizens, though.)

The Bailiwick of Jersey includes the most-populous island, Jersey, while the Bailiwick of Guernsey includes the less-populous islands of Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Herm.

English is the official language in both bailiwicks, but local forms of Norman French (like Jèrriais, and Guernesiais) are also spoken on certain islands.

Now, on to the names!

Jersey

Last year, Jersey welcomed a total of 890 babies — 426 girls and 464 boys. Here are the island’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2021:

Girl names

  1. Sienna
  2. Isla
  3. Olivia
  4. Willow
  5. Ellie
  6. Maria
  7. Sophia
  8. Valentina
  9. Amelia
  10. Charlotte

Boy names

  1. Arthur
  2. Oliver
  3. Noah
  4. Freddie
  5. Alexander
  6. Lucas
  7. Toby
  8. William
  9. Henry
  10. Sebastian

Since 2014, the name Sienna has reached the girls’ top 10 only twice…but it ranked #1 both times. I can’t account for the higher usage in 2018, but the 2021 return could be attributable to the influence of royal baby Sienna Elizabeth, born in September to Princess Beatrice.

Guernsey

Last year, Guernsey welcomed a total of 527 babies — 263 girls and 264 boys. Here are the bailiwick’s top girl names and top boy names of 2021:

Girl names

  1. Olivia, 6 baby girls
  2. Charlotte, 4 (6-way tie)
  3. Evie, 4 (6-way tie)
  4. Florence, 4 (6-way tie)
  5. Imogen, 4 (6-way tie)
  6. Isla, 4 (6-way tie)
  7. Penelope, 4 (6-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Luca, 6 baby boys (tie)
  2. Theodore, 6 (tie)
  3. Archie, 5 (3-way tie)
  4. Leo, 5 (3-way tie)
  5. Theo, 5 (3-way tie)
  6. Arthur, 4 (6-way tie)
  7. George, 4 (6-way tie)
  8. Max, 4 (6-way tie)
  9. Oscar, 4 (6-way tie)
  10. Thomas, 4 (6-way tie)
  11. William, 4 (6-way tie)

My source also mentioned a few other facts…

  • Isabella was given to 3 baby girls, Jessica to 2, and Isabella-Jude, Izabella, and Isabelle to 1 each.
  • Lucas was given to 3 baby boys, and Matthew, Mateus, Matheus, and James to 1 each.
  • Over 54% of the babies born in Guernsey last year were given a name that was used just once.
  • Back in 1996, the top names in Guernsey were Jessica, Lauren, and Sophie (a 3-way tie) and James.

This is the first time I’ve posted rankings for Guernsey, but I’ve been posting Jersey’s rankings for a few years — here’s 2020, for instance.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, the word “bailiwick” refers to the jurisdiction of a bailiff.

Sources: Annual Statement – Office of the Superintendent Registrar – Government of Jersey (PDF), Revealed: Jersey’s most popular baby names in 2021, Olivia, Theo, and Luca most popular baby names in Guernsey

Image: Adapted from Flag of Jersey (public domain)

The most-changed baby names in the U.S. (2017-2022)

The Washington Post recently published a pair of articles about babies whose names had been changed.

The first article mentioned that, according to SSA data, nearly 30,000 babies in the U.S. had had their names changed from January 2017 to March 2022.

The second article dug a little deeper, revealing the names that ranked highest on either side of the name-change spectrum: most-abandoned and most-adopted.

Most-abandoned baby namesMost-adopted baby names
1. Issac [sic]
2. Chole [sic]
3. Aiden
4. Conner
5. Elliot
6. Michael
7. James
8. Isabella
9. Sophia
10. David		1. Isaac
2. Chloe
3. Sebastian
4. William
5. Olivia
6. Michael
7. Elijah
8. Matthew
9. Connor
10. Jonathan

The top two names on both lists — Issac/Isaac and Chole/Chloe — clearly represent spelling corrections.

And my guess is that at least a portion of the boys named “Conner” had their names changed to the more common spelling “Connor.” (Connor has been a top-100 boy name since the early 1990s.)

My favorite thing about these rankings, though? The fact that Michael managed to balance itself out by ranking #6 on both lists. :)

(Thank you to Ellyn for letting me know about the WaPo articles!)

Sources:

Popular baby names in Northern Ireland (UK), 2021

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), the most popular baby names in Northern Ireland last year were Grace and Jack.

Here are the country’s top 50 girl names and top 50+ boy names of 2021:

Girl names

  1. Grace, 182 baby girls
  2. Emily, 150
  3. Fiadh, 149
  4. Olivia, 148
  5. Isla, 138
  6. Sophie, 128
  7. Aoife, 122
  8. Ella, 111
  9. Anna, 106
  10. Sophia, 102
  11. Amelia, 101
  12. Lucy, 100
  13. Charlotte, 98
  14. Lily, 94
  15. Evie, 92 (tie)
  16. Freya, 92 (tie)
  17. Ava, 90
  18. Annie, 87
  19. Mia, 82
  20. Ellie, 80
  21. Erin, 76 (3-way tie)
  22. Molly, 76 (3-way tie)
  23. Rosie, 76 (3-way tie)
  24. Willow, 69
  25. Eabha, 67
  26. Ruby, 64
  27. Poppy, 62
  28. Meabh, 61 (tie)
  29. Niamh, 61 (tie)
  30. Eva, 60
  31. Maisie, 59
  32. Katie, 58
  33. Cora, 56
  34. Hannah, 55 (tie)
  35. Ivy, 55 (tie)
  36. Cara, 54 (tie)
  37. Clodagh, 54 (tie)
  38. Georgia, 52 (4-way tie)
  39. Harper, 52 (4-way tie)
  40. Jessica, 52 (4-way tie)
  41. Zara, 52 (4-way tie)
  42. Chloe, 51 (tie)
  43. Rose, 51 (tie)
  44. Aria, 50
  45. Alice, 49 (3-way tie)
  46. Daisy, 49 (3-way tie)
  47. Mollie, 49 (3-way tie)
  48. Heidi, 48
  49. Saoirse, 45 (tie)
  50. Sienna, 45 (tie)

Boy names

  1. Jack, 193 baby boys
  2. Noah, 191
  3. James, 173
  4. Charlie, 155
  5. Oliver, 131
  6. Theo, 119
  7. Leo, 117
  8. Cillian, 116
  9. Finn, 115
  10. Harry, 114
  11. Oisin, 109 (tie)
  12. Thomas, 109 (tie)
  13. Daniel, 103
  14. Tommy, 101
  15. Freddie, 97
  16. Jacob, 92
  17. Jude, 86
  18. Arthur, 84
  19. Daithi, 83
  20. Darragh, 78 (3-way tie)
  21. Ethan, 78 (3-way tie)
  22. Ronan, 78 (3-way tie)
  23. Jonah, 77
  24. Alfie, 76 (tie)
  25. Archie, 76 (tie)
  26. Caleb, 75
  27. Shea, 73
  28. Conor, 71
  29. Alexander, 69
  30. Patrick, 68
  31. George, 66 (3-way tie)
  32. Isaac, 66 (3-way tie)
  33. Mason, 66 (3-way tie)
  34. Matthew, 65 (tie)
  35. Reuben, 65 (tie)
  36. Conan, 64 (3-way tie)
  37. Fionn, 64 (3-way tie)
  38. Luke, 64 (3-way tie)
  39. Ollie, 63
  40. Jake, 61 (tie)
  41. Joseph, 61 (tie)
  42. Logan, 60 (3-way tie)
  43. Odhran, 60 (3-way tie)
  44. Oscar, 60 (3-way tie)
  45. Liam, 58 (3-way tie)
  46. Lucas, 58 (3-way tie)
  47. Max, 58 (3-way tie)
  48. John, 57
  49. Rory, 56
  50. Joshua, 55 (tie)
  51. Theodore, 55 (tie)

In the girls’ top 10, Aoife and Anna replaced Amelia, Lucy and Freya. (Two replace three because there was a tie for 10th place the previous year.)

In the boys’ top 10, Leo replaced Thomas.

And on the other side of the spectrum…here are some of the names that were given to just 3 babies each in Northern Ireland last year:

Rare girl namesRare boy names
Anais, Betsy, Cliona, Darlah, Eadaoin, Fearne, Gigi, Helena, Indi, Jane, Kelly, Leila, Mallaidh, Nell, Orfhlaith, Rae, Saffron, Tabitha, Vivienne, WinnieAyaan, Brendan, Cabhan, Donncha, Egan, Fearghal, Gareth, Herbie, Jaylen, Koen, Lenny, Millar, Naoise, Paddy, Quinn, Ross, Seanan, Travis, Vinnie, Zachariah

Finally, here are the 2020 rankings for Northern Ireland, if you’d like to compare.

Source: Baby Names – NISRA

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)

Top lengths of baby names in the U.S., 2021

Which lengths were the most and least popular for U.S. baby names in 2021?

Top length for girl names: 6 letters

For baby girls, the most-used length was 6 letters, followed by 5 and 7.

Graph of length popularity for U.S. baby girl names, 2021

The most popular girl names per length were…

  • 2 letters (over 200 baby girls): Bo, Jo, Zo, An, Vy, Io
  • 3 letters (over 58,300): Ava, Mia, Zoe, Ivy, Eva, Ada
  • 4 letters (over 223,800): Emma, Luna, Ella, Aria, Mila, Nora
  • 5 letters (over 348,000): Sofia, Avery, Emily, Chloe, Layla, Hazel
  • 6 letters (over 466,100): Olivia, Amelia, Sophia, Evelyn, Harper, Camila
  • 7 letters (over 307,900): Eleanor, Abigail, Madison, Addison, Lillian, Paisley
  • 8 letters (over 142,000): Isabella, Scarlett, Penelope, Victoria, Brooklyn, Savannah
  • 9 letters (over 71,800): Charlotte, Elizabeth, Valentina, Josephine, Gabriella
  • 10 letters (over 8,000): Evangeline, Alexandria, Alessandra, Jacqueline
  • 11 letters (over 300): Christianna, Ameliagrace, Anavictoria
  • 12 letters (under 100)
  • 13 letters (over 100)
  • 14 letters (under 100)
  • 15 letters (none)

Top length for boy names: 6 letters

For baby boys, the most-used length was also 6 letters, followed by 5 and 4.

Graph of length popularity for U.S. baby boy names, 2021

The most popular boy names per length were…

  • 2 letters (over 1,800 baby boys): Bo, Ty, Om, Aj, Cy, Oz
  • 3 letters (over 49,200): Leo, Eli, Kai, Ian, Ace, Max
  • 4 letters (over 288,800): Liam, Noah, Jack, Levi, Owen, John
  • 5 letters (over 453,200): James, Lucas, Henry, Mateo, Mason, Ethan
  • 6 letters (over 511,800): Oliver, Elijah, Daniel, Samuel, Joseph, Julian
  • 7 letters (over 269,000): William, Jackson, Michael, Grayson, Matthew, Gabriel
  • 8 letters (over 106,100): Benjamin, Theodore, Maverick, Santiago, Jonathan, Jeremiah
  • 9 letters (over 42,000): Alexander, Sebastian, Christian, Nathaniel, Alejandro
  • 10 letters (over 3,700): Maximilian, Alessandro, Kristopher, Montgomery
  • 11 letters (over 7,800): Christopher, Maximiliano, Constantine
  • 12 letters (over 200)
  • 13 letters (over 100)
  • 14 letters (under 100)
  • 15 letters (under 100)