Nicknames for Anthony
27 ideas for Anthony — the short forms people actually use, plus cute, funny and gamer versions. Copy any of them in one click.
- Tony the standard short form
- Ant the British clip
- Anth the softer British clip
- Tone the friend version of Tony
- Antonio the Italian and Spanish form
- Antoine the French form
- Anton the Russian and German form
- Antoni the Polish and Catalan form
- António the Portuguese form
- Antti the Finnish form
- Antal the Hungarian form
- Toño the Spanish nickname for Antonio
- Nino the Italian nickname for Antonino
- Tonio the Italian short form
- Toni the German and Croatian short form
- Antek the Polish everyday form
- Tosha the Russian affectionate form of Anton
- Tonio-Boy the affectionate compound
- A initial only, in group chats
- Big Tony the team-sport version
- Tony-Bear the family affectionate pattern
- Antman the joke that follows Ant, immediately
- Saint Anthony the patron of lost things, invoked often
- Tony Baloney the rhyme every Tony has heard
- Ant-Ant doubled, family use
- Antho Anthony, cut where people naturally stop saying it.
- Atomic Anthony Shares the "A" sound with Anthony.
About the name Anthony.
The Roman clan name Antonius is the source, and its meaning is genuinely unknown, most likely Etruscan, which makes the priceless or praiseworthy gloss you see on baby name lists a much later invention borrowed from Greek anthos. Two saints did the popularising: the Egyptian desert hermit and Anthony of Padua, the one Catholics still address about lost keys. Italian American families kept it strong right through the twentieth century, and its American peak arrives late compared with the rest of this group, landing around 2000 rather than in the 1980s. Tony detaches so cleanly that plenty of bearers use it everywhere except a passport, and the h in the English spelling was inserted by scholars who wrongly assumed a Greek root.
Urban, Catholic and slightly streetwise, with a strong Italian American association in the United States that no amount of British stage acting has dislodged. Three syllables that end on a light vowel keep it from sounding stern. Tony is so established that some bearers forget the long form exists.
Most popular around 2000. Based on US birth records.
- Origin
- Roman
- Meaning
- from the Antonius family
- Syllables
- An·tho·ny
- Used as
- a boys’ name
Anthony around the world.
These are the real forms Anthony takes in other languages, which often make excellent nicknames in their own right.
-
Antonio
Italian
-
Antoine
French
-
Anton
Russian
-
Antonio
Portuguese
-
Antoni
Polish
Famous people called Anthony.
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Anthony Hopkins
Welsh actor, Oscar winner
-
Anthony Bourdain
chef and travel writer
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Anthony Trollope
Victorian novelist and postal clerk
Questions about the name Anthony
Is Tony the only real nickname? +
It is the dominant one by an enormous margin, and unusually it takes the middle and end of the name rather than the front. Ant is common in Britain and Australia. Anth and Tone exist but stay within friend groups rather than becoming general usage.
Anthony or Antony, and where did the h come from? +
Antony is the older and more accurate English spelling, since the Latin Antonius has no h. Renaissance scholars added one on the mistaken assumption that the name came from Greek anthos, meaning flower. The corrupted spelling then won, particularly in America.
What does the name actually mean? +
Nobody knows. It began as a Roman family name, probably of Etruscan origin, and Etruscan is only partly deciphered. The flower and priceless glosses circulating online both derive from the false Greek etymology behind the added h, not from any Roman source.
When was Anthony most popular in America? +
Around the turn of the millennium, later than Michael, Christopher or Matthew. It climbed gradually from the 1950s, reached its high point near 2000, and has fallen since. That late peak means bearers skew younger than the name's traditional associations imply.