Mateo
A Spanish take on Mateusz, from the Latin for "gift of God". Given only to boys and still rare in Poland: it sits well past the thousandth spot, and most people here have never met one, though more arrive each year.
Mateo Pronunciation
Mateo is pronounced mah-TE-o (/maˈtɛɔ/).
What Mateo means
Where Mateo comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Mateo comes into Polish through Spanish, though its roots run much deeper. The Latin Matthaeus rendered a Hebrew name meaning gift of God, and Spanish pared it down to the two bright syllables of Mateo. In Poland the same name grew up as Mateusz, so a boy called Mateo shares a stem his grandfather would recognize under a different spelling.
The Spanish flavor is recent here. Mateo reads as a choice with a southern accent, closer to Madrid than to the old parish books, yet the saint standing behind it is the same evangelist Poles honor as Mateusz on the twenty-first of September.
The meaning stays legible. Gift of God, dar boga, sits right there in the Hebrew that Latin borrowed and never quite hid. On a school class register a Mateo lands beside a Mateusz, two doors into one old idea.
How many people are named Mateo
1 in 43299 men in Poland is named Mateo. 493 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1324 among male names.
Mateo's popularity over time
18 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #539 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2007.
Where parents choose Mateo
Mateo is most popular in Lower Silesian, 104% above the national average (15 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lesser Poland (+70%) and Greater Poland (+69%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 65% and 61% below average respectively.
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Lower Silesian
+104%1 in 10,476 babies
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Lesser Poland
+70%1 in 12,606 babies
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Greater Poland
+69%1 in 12,661 babies
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Subcarpathian
−65%1 in 60,283 babies
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian
−61%1 in 54,690 babies
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Lublin
−58%1 in 51,338 babies
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Lower Silesian+104% 15 born1 in 10,476 babies+104%
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Lesser Poland+70% 18 born1 in 12,606 babies+70%
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Greater Poland+69% 17 born1 in 12,661 babies+69%
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Pomeranian+16% 8 born1 in 18,415 babies+16%
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Silesian+3% 11 born1 in 20,689 babies+3%
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Masovian−3% 16 born1 in 22,142 babies−3%
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Opole−7% 2 born1 in 23,048 babies−7%
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Łódź−32% 4 born1 in 31,680 babies−32%
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Podlaskie−35% 2 born1 in 32,893 babies−35%
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Warmian-Masurian−40% 2 born1 in 35,897 babies−40%
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Lublin−58% 2 born1 in 51,338 babies−58%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−61% 2 born1 in 54,690 babies−61%
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Subcarpathian−65% 2 born1 in 60,283 babies−65%
Mateo as a middle name
Mateo is a first name for 493 men in Poland and a middle name for another 101, an 83/17 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 708th, between Uriel (102) and Rodrigo (101).
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#706 Natanael102
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#707 Uriel102
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#708 Mateo101
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#709 Rodrigo101
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#710 Wayne101