The United States Social Security Administration has just published the list of the most popular names chosen by American parents to register their children and highlighted an unprecedented fact: for the first time, a name in Spanish enters the list and is located among the five most popular.
This is Mateo, a name of Hebrew origin that means “gift from God”, whose original version is Matityahu and with which 111,000 children were baptized in the United States in the last year.
The most surprising thing about all of this is that American parents are baptizing their children with the Spanish version of the name, that is, Mateo, and not the English version, which is Matthew.
Furthermore, according to the United States Census Bureau, which profiles the name as Latino, more than 60% of minors registered with the name Mateo are Americans, children of Americans, and without any Latino family connection. Mateo changed history: he became one of the favorite names in the United States, above Liam, Noaj, James or Oliver, but he also managed to change a ranking of favorite names that had not registered major changes for 25 years.
