Anthony

From Namespedia - Names Meaning and Origins

Name: Anthony

Gender: Masculine

Location: Europe

Language: English

Thematic: History

Meaning: Unknown (see Comments), but since the Roman family from whose name Anthony derives was one of the most important families in ancient Rome, one might suggest, for those who insist on a meaning, "high-ranking". Historically, it certainly makes more sense than the fictitious meanings of Anthony typically found on baby-name websites, such as "priceless", "inestimable", "incomparable", "praiseworthy" or "beyond praise".

Comments: The name Anthony is the usual English form of the Latin given name Antonius, previously a Roman family name of unknown Etruscan origin. Since the Renaissance this name has been commonly (but incorrectly) associated with Greek ανθος (anthos) "flower", which resulted in the addition of the h in the 17th century. It has also been associated (equally incorrectly) with the name of Anthonios, king of Achaia in Greece. A notable bearer of the Roman name was Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius), the general who ruled the Roman Empire jointly with Augustus for a short time. When their relationship turned sour, he and his mistress Cleopatra were attacked and forced to commit suicide. Shakespeare's tragedy 'Antony and Cleopatra' is based on them. Mark Antony had claimed to be descended from Anton, a son of the mythological hero Hercules, but this Anton, who had never been heard of before, was an obvious fiction created by Mark Antony himself for political purposes, since in ancient Rome one of the ideological battlegrounds was divine descent. Other famous bearers of the name include the 3rd-century Saint Anthony the Abbot, a hermit from Egypt who founded monasticism, and the 13th-century Saint Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of Portugal. A less common but more correct English form of Antonius is Antony, which is the form used by Shakespeare.