Matej
Given to only a handful of boys each year, and always to boys: barely 100 Poles carry it, so most will never meet one. It comes from Hebrew for "gift of God", and the small run of recent births suggests it's slowly catching on.
Matej Pronunciation
Matej is pronounced MAH-tey (/ˈmatɛj/).
What Matej means
Where Matej comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Matej reaches back to the Hebrew Mattityahu, a name built to mean "gift of God." That older form belonged to priests and rebels in Judea long before it traveled north. When it settled among Slavic speakers it shed syllables and became Matej, the brisk cousin of the Czech Matěj and the Polish Mateusz.
The meaning stayed put. A Matej is, in the plain reading of the name, something given. The Gospel writer Matthew grew from the same root, which is why the feast of Saint Matthew on 21 September became the day many a Matej marks his imieniny.
Say it once. It is short and it lands.
On a class register the name sits without fuss, two syllables, easy to call across a room. The boy who answers to it inherits a word that meant "gift of God" in Jerusalem and still means it now. Dar boga, the Poles say for its kin. Matej keeps that sense unbroken, from Mattityahu to the line on a form at the urząd.
How many people are named Matej
1 in 182446 men in Poland is named Matej. 117 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3129 among male names.
Matej's popularity over time
2 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1703 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2023.
Matej as a middle name
Matej is a first name for 117 men in Poland and a middle name for another 9, a 93/7 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 3347th, between Masum (9) and Melvin (9).
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#3345 Martino9
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#3346 Masum9
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#3347 Matej9
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#3348 Melvin9
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#3349 Mesfin9