Matthan is a Hebrew biblical name meaning “gift” or “gift of God.”
Matthan is a name of ancient Hebrew origin, preserved almost exclusively in one of the most-read texts in the world: the genealogy of Jesus that opens the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew 1:15, Matthan is listed as the father of Jacob and grandfather of Joseph, the husband of Mary — placing him quietly but permanently in the lineage of Christian sacred history. The name is thought to derive from a Hebrew root related to mattan or mattanah, meaning "gift," a meaning shared by the more familiar names Matthew and Matthias, which come from the same Semitic cluster.
Despite its biblical pedigree, Matthan remained extraordinarily rare for most of Western naming history, overshadowed by its more sonorous cousins Matthew and Matthias, which the Church elevated through apostolic association. Matthan occupied a peculiar position — present in scripture but never quite achieving the devotional momentum that would bring it into common use. This very obscurity is part of its appeal for contemporary parents who mine biblical genealogies for undiscovered gems: names with impeccable provenance that have simply never been popular.
In the early twenty-first century, as names like Maddox, Matteo, and Matthias surged in use, Matthan began attracting interest from parents who loved the "Matt-" sound but wanted something more unusual. It lands with scholarly gravity — a name a theologian or a linguist might choose — while remaining short enough to be practical. For a child named Matthan, there is the quiet pleasure of having a name most people have never heard spoken aloud, even if they have read it hundreds of times.