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Updated March 6, 2024

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Galician and Portuguese : widespread habitational name from any of numerous places in Galicia and Portugal named Mato, from mata ‘brushwood’, ‘scrub’, ‘thicket’.
  • Spanish : topographic name from mato ‘scrub’.
  • Catalan (Mató) : metonymic occupational name for a dairyman, from a word meaning ‘cream’; ‘curds’, ‘curd cheese’.
  • Hungarian (Mató) : from a pet form of the personal name Maté, Hungarian form of Matthew.
  • Sioux : 'bear'.

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