So today is the feast day of St. Matthias the Apostle on the Roman Catholic calendar, the one who was chosen by the Eleven to replace Judas Iscariot. It struck me that at least in modern English in the US, this name is relatively uncommon as a given name compared to the other Apostles, the four Evangelists, and other New Testament/early Christian figures. I get why the “big ones” like Peter, John, and Andrew are such popular names, but even Bartholomew and Nathaniel seem to be more common.
On the flip side, I know that Matthias is a very popular name in the German speaking world and throughout Central Europe. And at least in German it’s Matthew that seems less common, or gets conflated with Matthias (Matthäus, as far as I recall, is mostly only used for the actual biblical figure). In fact, almost any time I’ve met an American whose name is Matthias, he comes from a family that’s very consciously ethnically German.
Could it be because of reinforcement, or lack thereof, by other historical figures, like how Martin is such a common name in Germany because of Martin Luther? Or is it just based on unpredictable popularity trends?
/u/Rikkety correctly points out that Matthew is a common English rendering of Matthias. E. G. Withycombe, The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, points out that there's an example (Mathiu seu Macy) in Domesday Book, 1086. But she also lists a massive number of variant forms and derivatives: Mayhew, Mace(y), Machin, Matheson, Matterson, Matkin, Maycock, Maykin, and many others. "These surnames are only a selection of the derivatives of Matthew and they give some measure of its popularity in the 12th-14th C. It continued in general use, though less frequent, after the Reformation."
In the US, the Social Security Administration says that Matthew was in the top 10 male baby names from 1972 up to the AskHistorians limit in 1998, in the top 3 from 1981. Since the beginning of the 20th C, it has been in the top 200 (or a few years, a few slots below). In the UK , it had much the same trajectory in the limited data there.