Anthony

A Roman soldier, a Renaissance saint who preached to fish (according to legend, when his Rimini congregation refused to listen, Saint Anthony of Padua walked to the riverbank and addressed the fish, who allegedly came to attention), a desert hermit who wandered into the Egyptian wilderness in the third century and more or less invented Christian monasticism by living alone in a tomb for twenty years and then in an abandoned fort for another twenty — Antonius is a Roman clan name with a long and eccentric guest list. The meaning is famously uncertain.

Centuries of folk etymology linked it to the Greek anthos, meaning flower, and the association stuck even if the philology didn't (modern scholars suspect an Etruscan origin and no clear meaning). Mark Antony, Cleopatra's lover and Octavian's rival in the late Roman Republic, gave the name its first burst of Western fame; Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Anthony the Great gave it Christian gravity; the Italian-American twentieth century gave it whole neighborhoods (Anthony Bourdain, Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Quinn, Tony Bennett, Tony Soprano).

Anthony has held a steady top-50 American spot for nearly a century, currently at rank forty-four, with a particularly devoted following in Italian-American communities. Famous bearers also include Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Bourdain, Anthony Mackie, Anthony Joshua (the British boxer), and Anthony Trollope (the Victorian novelist). Three syllables — AN-tho-nee, or AN-to-nee in many American pronunciations — the opening A wide, the TH often softened to a plain T. Nicknames span Tony, Ant, Anto, Antoine. Pairs cleanly with everything (Anthony James, Anthony Wren). Vintage, strong, quietly stately.