Matti

The medieval spoken form of the Vulgate Latin Matthias and Matthaeus, brought to Finland as Catholic saint's names. Cognate with English Matthias and Matthew.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑtːi/, [ˈmɑ̝t̪ːi]
• Rhymes: -ɑtːi
• Syllabification^(key): Mat‧ti

Matti

1. a male given name from Biblical Hebrew
   • 1840, Kanteletar:1:59 Huoliansa haasteleva:

     Tahi jos virkan vierahalle,
     mainitsen kylän Matille,
     vieras sen viieksi panevi,
     kylän Matti kymmeneksi.

   • 1876 Zachris Topelius, Maamme kirja, Chapter 71: Matti (translated from Swedish Boken om vårt land 1875):

     Eräällä isännällä oli kolme palvelijata. Iivana oli Wenäläinen, Eerikki oli Ruotsalainen ja Matti oli Suomalainen.

     A farmer had three servants. Ivan was Russian, Erik was Swedish and Matti was Finnish.

   • 2018, Pauliina Rauhala, Synninkantajat, Gummerus, →ISBN, page 31:

     Matti on maailman tavallisimman ja kunnollisimman miehen nimi. Sellaiseksi minäkin aion kasvaa, samanlaiseksi kuin isä, vaikka oma nimeni on vähän liian erikoinen.

     Matti was a name for the world's most ordinary and proper man. That's how I too want to grow up to be, like my father, even if my own name is a little too unusual.

2. The letter M in the Finnish spelling alphabet.

• The typical name for a Finnish male in stories and proverbs.
• Matti has been one of the most popular names in Finland since the Middle Ages, for reasons not quite clear. For example, it was the most common first name of men born in Finland in 1937–1949.

• (given names) Matias, Matteus, Mattias
• (pet form) Masa
• (surnames) Matikainen, Matilainen, Mattila, Mattinen

• Matti is the 3^rd most common male given name in Finland, belonging to 40,196 male individuals (and as a middle name to 37,273 more), and also belongs as a middle name to 7 female individuals, according to February 2023 data from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency of Finland.

• matit, mitat, mitta