Anthony

English form of the Roman family name Antonius, which is of unknown Etruscan origin. It became widely used in the Christian world through the fame of Saint Anthony the Great, a 4th-century Egyptian hermit associated with the founding of Christian monasticism, and its popularity was further strengthened in the Middle Ages by Saint Anthony of Padua, the 13th-century patron saint of Portugal. The best-known Roman bearer was the general Marcus Antonius, or Mark Antony, who briefly ruled jointly with Augustus in the 1st century BC and later, after their relationship collapsed, was driven to suicide with Cleopatra, a story dramatized in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1606). The spelling with h arose in the 17th century from a widespread but incorrect link with Greek anthos, meaning “flower.”

Anthony has unusual staying power. It appears in the US records as early as 1880 and still ranks #46 for boys in 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 1990, with 25,088 births.