Matei

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Matey in US United States, NI Nicaragua, ES Spain and 8 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Matei is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish surname14K records spelled Matei7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, Romania, Brazil, United States

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Mateí, Mateï, Mateĭ

• Czech given name3.1K records spelled Matei101 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Czechia, Croatia, Slovakia, Ukraine

  Languages: Czech, Croatian, Slovak

  Also written Matej, Matěj, Матей, Матеј, Mattei

47 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Matei is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Russian, var of Matfei.

  as a word·A Dictionary of Period Russian Names (Wickenden / Goldschmidt 1996)

• In Galician, first-person singular preterite indicative of matar

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Lithuanian, second-person singular past of matyti

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 27 years between 1996–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Draga Olteanu Mateib. 1933RORomanian actress
• Ilie Mateib. 1960ROOlympic wrestler, silver medalist at 1984 Summer Olympics
• Sorin Mateib. 1963ROathletics competitor
• Adrian Mateib. 1968RORomanian footballer
• Nicoleta Mateib. 1970RORomanian singer
• Adrian Mateib. 1985RORomanian figure skater
• Simona Mateib. 1985RORomanian tennis player
• Gabriel Mateib. 1990RORomanian footballer
• Cosmin Mateib. 1991RORomanian footballer
• Florentin Mateib. 1993RORomanian footballer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 197 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Matei?

We estimate roughly 5.1 thousand people bear Matei (counting its spellings and scripts) across 14 countries in our records.

In which country does Matei have the most bearers?

Matei is most frequently recorded in Romania, where it is most often spelled matei.

How common is Matei compared with other names?

In Romania, Matei is the 14th most common surname of 67,968 surnames recorded there.

What does the name Matei mean?

Recorded meaning: Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic Матѳеи (Matθei), from Ancient Greek Ματθαῖος (Matthaîos).