Mats
Meaning and origin
Vernacular form of Mattias and Matteus. First recorded in Sweden in 1494 as Matz.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for Mats (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, Mats has been rising over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 1998. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Boys |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 12 |
| 1999 | – |
| 2000 | – |
| 2001 | – |
| 2002 | – |
| 2003 | – |
| 2004 | 9 |
| 2005 | 4 |
| 2006 | 4 |
| 2007 | 4 |
| 2008 | 6 |
| 2009 | 8 |
| 2010 | 3 |
| 2011 | 7 |
| 2012 | 5 |
| 2013 | – |
| 2014 | 6 |
| 2015 | 3 |
| 2016 | 5 |
| 2017 | 5 |
| 2018 | 4 |
| 2019 | 4 |
| 2020 | 5 |
| 2021 | 8 |
| 2022 | 7 |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Men and boys |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 46,176 |
| 2000 | 45,890 |
| 2001 | 45,608 |
| 2002 | 45,334 |
| 2003 | 45,127 |
| 2004 | 44,884 |
| 2005 | 44,579 |
| 2006 | 44,303 |
| 2007 | 44,102 |
| 2008 | 43,953 |
| 2009 | 43,795 |
| 2010 | 43,574 |
| 2011 | 43,381 |
| 2012 | 43,169 |
| 2013 | 42,909 |
| 2014 | 42,647 |
| 2015 | 42,364 |
| 2016 | 42,105 |
| 2017 | 41,840 |
| 2018 | 41,504 |
| 2019 | 41,209 |
| 2020 | 40,842 |
Mats in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter Mats.Hi! My name is Mats.
- Mats har bott i Uppsala i tre år.Mats has lived in Uppsala for three years.
- Jag ska fika med Mats i eftermiddag.I'm having coffee with Mats this afternoon.
- Mats mamma är lärare.Mats's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Mats mamma is Mats's mum. Because Mats already ends in s, nothing is added.
Related names and other spellings
More names
Questions about Mats
How do you pronounce Mats in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear Mats from a native speaker's recording.
What does the name Mats mean?
Vernacular form of Mattias and Matteus. First recorded in Sweden in 1494 as Matz.
How popular is Mats in Sweden?
7 babies were named Mats in 2022. In 2020, 40,842 people in Sweden had Mats as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been rising lately and peaked in 1998 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.