Matthieu

Meaning of Matthieu

Matthieu, a venerable appellation drawn from the Latin Mattheus and ultimately rooted in the Hebrew Mattityahu—“gift of Yahweh”—unfurls across centuries of ecclesiastical and literary tradition like a richly ornamented tapestry. In its French pronunciation, ma-tyuh (/ma.tjø/), the name glides from the lips with a silken grace reminiscent of dawn’s first light upon a marble altar, evoking both scholarly erudition and devotional depth. Its most celebrated bearer, Saint Matthew the Evangelist, endowed the name with an enduring aura of sacred witness, weaving it indelibly into the fabric of Western Christendom. In North America, Matthieu has maintained a subtle constancy: in 2024, twelve newborns received the name, placing it at 912th in the Social Security rankings, while over the past three decades its annual incidence has gracefully oscillated between the mid-700s and low-900s—testimony to a cultivated preference for names that marry historical gravitas with melodic refinement.