I'm an American, our names don't mean shit.
Butch Coolidge, "Pulp Fiction"

What's in a name?

The name Matthew is Hebrew, and means "gift of god". I also go by Matt. Other common spellings include Mathew or Matthias, not to mention Matty (usually spelt Mattie), which is a contraction of Matilda (not to be confused with the Egyptian goddess Maat, who personified truth, law and universal order). 0.759% of American men are named Matthew, Mathew, or Matt, as are 0.002% of American women (an additional 0.081% of women are named Mattie, and 0.026% are named Matilda, Matilde, Mathilda, or Mathilde). You may also be interested to know that the Chinese transliteration of "Matthew" also means "wife of Mr. Horse" (a common surname).

My middle name is Vernon. I've never really liked it. It apparently is French, and means alder tree. One of my ancestors must have liked it, though, as it's also my father's, grandfather's, and great-grandfather's middle name, and for all I know could go back further than that.

The name Corks means "maker of purple dye", and is also slang for an alcoholic. Take your pick. There were exactly nine U.S. households listed in phone books that had the name Corks as of December 2002, which is much greater than the number in Canada (all of whom are my immediate family). It's not even listed in the census data I found (i.e. it wasn't present in a sample of 6 375 000 names). I suspect the name is ultimately derivative from the county Cork in Ireland but my ancestors moved around a lot over the past few centuries and we don't have any other indication that they're from there.

The names in the table to the right were taken from online translations of the Christian bible, and the frequencies in the table to the left are from the aforementioned census data. If you're reading this and can correct or add to this information I'd love to hear from you.

Matt Corks | mvcorksalumniuwaterlooca | Public Key
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