Mats

Spellings & scripts●

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 8 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◐

Mats is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name3.8K records spelled Mats3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Sweden, Spain, United States, Norway

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Mat︠s︡

• French given name2.5K records spelled Mats3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands

  Also written Mat'S, Mặt'S

• a separate given name1.2K records spelled Mats3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Sweden, United States, Benin

  Also written Máts, Mạts

• Russian surname983 records spelled Mats18 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Sweden

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek

  Also written Мац, Матс, Matz, Матч, Матз

• a separate given name950 records spelled Mats2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Sweden, Norway, United States, India

  Also written Mat︠s︡

• Vietnamese given name916 records spelled Mats3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Vietnam

  Also written Mắt'S, Mặt'S

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●

Mats is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Mats är en nordisk (främst svensk) form av → Mattias och → Matteus. Namnet var äldst mest frekvent inom bondeståndet och tycks ha varit särskilt använt i Dalarna och Finland. Mats var under 1950-talet det fjärde vanligaste givna tilltalsnamnet. I både den rikssvenska och finlandssvenska almanackan 24 februari.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, männl. Vom., schwedische Kurzform von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In Latvian, (head) hair (set of keratin filaments which grow on the top of a human being's head)

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

• In Estonian, a male given name, short for Mattias and Matteus

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

• In got, romanization of 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐍃

  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●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 74 years between 1949–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Mats Traatb. 1936EEEstonian poet and author (1936–2022)
• Mats Ekb. 1945SESwedish ballet dancer and choreographer
• Mats Bergmanb. 1948SESwedish actor
• Mats Näslundb. 1959SESwedish ice hockey player
• Mats Magnussonb. 1963SESwedish footballer
• Mats Grenb. 1963SESwedish footballer and manager
• Mats Wilanderb. 1964SESwedish tennis player
• Mats Sundinb. 1971SESwedish ice hockey player
• Mats Hummelsb. 1988DEGerman footballer (born 1988)
• Mats Wiefferb. 1999NLDutch association football player (born 1999)

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 · 326 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Mats?

We estimate roughly 170 thousand people bear Mats (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.

In which country does Mats have the most bearers?

We estimate about 90 thousand people bear Mats in France, more than in any other country in our records.

Where is Mats most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Mats is densest in Sweden — about 1 in 161 people — even though France holds more of our records for it.

How common is Mats compared with other names?

In Benin, Mats is the 9th most common given name of 1,808 given names recorded there.

Is Mats a male or female name?

Mats is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Mats mean?

Recorded meaning: indefinite genitive singular of mat