Mateo, the Spanish form of Matthew, comes from the Greek name Matthaios and Hebrew name Mattithiah, which is derived from the Hebrew roots mattat, meaning "gift," and yah, referring to the Hebrew God. It first appeared in the Social Security Administration's top 1,000 for boy names in 1995 and cracked the top-500 several years later. Mateo has now been a top-100 boy's name every year since 2015 and debuted inside the top-10 for the first time in 2023. It's the most common form of the name in the U.S., even more so than Matthew and Matteo. It's also the name "Middle of Nowhere" actress Eva Amurri gave her son Mateo Antoni, born in 2020, as well as the name Jane Villanueva (played by actress Gina Rodriguez) gives her son Mateo in the hit show "Jane the Virgin." Mateo was introduced in Season 2, around the same time the name debuted in the SSA's top-100.
