Matthias: Last Name Origin and Family Crest

Arms linked to Matthes and its spellings were granted to individual families; our heraldry team traces which line they belonged to.

Meaning of the name

The last name Matthias is a variant form of Matthes, a German family name. Its meaning, shared with Matthes, is “Gift of God”.

Before spelling was fixed, Matthes was also written Matthias. Spellings drifted because names were written down by ear in parish books, tax rolls and passenger lists. Other spellings include Matthis, Matthäus and Mattheus. In the 2010 US Census, 2,560 Americans gave Matthias as their last name (rank 12,174). It sits within the 25,000 most common last names in the country.

Get the complete Matthias report, with a museum-style coat of arms.