Hungarian2 syllablesBiblical
Meaning: the Hungarian Matthew — Hebrew for "gift of Yahweh".
Máté
| Origin | Hungarian form of Matthew, from Hebrew Mattityahu through Greek Matthaios and Latin Matthaeus |
|---|---|
| Meaning | "Gift of Yahweh", from Hebrew mattan (gift) plus the divine name |
| Pronunciation | MAH-tay. Both accents mark long vowels; the final é is a clear ay, never silent, and never the English word mate |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100 and rare in America; in Hungary one of the two or three most-given boys' names of the past twenty years |
| Variants | Matthew, Matteo, Mateo, Mathieu, Matvey, Matej; Mátyás is the related but separate Hungarian Matthias |
| Nicknames | Matyi, Mati, Mátéka |
| Feast day | 21 September, St Matthew the Evangelist |
History & meaning
Máté is Matthew: the tax collector who left his booth, the evangelist whose gospel opens the New Testament, and a Hebrew sentence, Mattityahu, gift of Yahweh. Hungarian took it through Latin, cut it to two syllables and lengthened both vowels, and the result has been on the registers since the Middle Ages. In the twenty-first century it went to the top of them: Máté, Bence and Levente have divided the leading positions in Hungary between them for two decades, and the taste they represent — short, light, ending open — is remarkably consistent.
Hungarian keeps Máté carefully separate from Mátyás, which is Matthias, and the distinction matters because of one man. Mátyás Hunyadi, Matthias Corvinus, ruled from 1458 to 1490, kept a Renaissance court at Buda with a library famous across Europe, and paid for a standing army when other kings still called up their nobles. In Hungarian folk tales he is Mátyás the Just, who walks the country in disguise catching officials out, and when something goes wrong the proverb is still meghalt Mátyás, oda az igazság — Matthias is dead, and justice with him. None of that attaches to Máté, who stays the evangelist. Foreign readers should also know the accents are load-bearing: strip them and an English speaker sees a word for a friend, and a South American sees a drink.
Why parents choose it
It is soft, it is fast to say, it belongs to a saint, and it manages to be traditional and current at the same time — an unusual combination in any language. The nickname Matyi does the rest.
Middle names for Máté
Two open syllables can carry a much longer partner: Máté Zsombor, Máté Barnabás, Máté Ábel, Máté Kristóf. The middle names guide goes into the length question properly.
Famous Mátés
Máté Fenyvesi spent his whole career on the left wing for Ferencváros, won a European trophy with them in 1965, and played more than seventy times for Hungary. Máté Lékai has captained the Hungarian handball team and played for Veszprém, one of the strongest clubs in Europe. As with the other names currently topping the Hungarian list, most bearers are young enough that the roll of famous ones is still filling up.
Consider instead
Matthew is the same name in English, with the accents removed and no ambiguity. Bence is its constant rival at the top of the Hungarian register. Miklós is the older, heavier saint's name for a family that wants the tradition without the fashion.