Matthew

Matthew is an English given name derived from the Latin Matthaeus, itself from the Greek Matthaios, which is a rendering of the Hebrew name Mattityahu, meaning gift of God or gift of Yahweh. The name is borne in the New Testament by one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, a tax collector who became an evangelist and is traditionally credited as the author of the first Gospel, giving the name strong and lasting significance throughout the Christian world. Its widespread adoption across Europe during the medieval period produced numerous cognates and variants, including Mathew, Matthias, Matteo in Italian, Mateo in Spanish, Matthieu in French, and Matías in Portuguese and Spanish.