English and West Indian (mainly Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago, also Dutch Caribbean): from the personal name Anthony, Latin Antonius, which, with its variants and cognates, is one of the commonest personal names in Europe. Spellings with -h-, which first appear in English in the 16th century and in French (as Anthoine) at about the same time, are due to the erroneous belief that the name derives from Greek anthos ‘flower’. The popularity of the personal name in Christendom is largely due to the cult of the Egyptian hermit Saint Anthony ( AD 251–356), who in his old age gathered a community of hermits around him, and for that reason is regarded by some as the founder of monasticism. It was further increased by the fame of Saint Anthony of Padua (1195–1231), who long enjoyed a great popular cult and who is believed to help people find lost things. In North America, the English form of the surname has absorbed cognates and derivatives (patronymics) from other languages, for example Greek patronymic Antoniades , Italian Antoni , Polish Antoniewicz , Croatian and Serbian Antonović (see Antonovich ) and Antunović; see also below. The name Anthony is also found among Christians in southern India, but since South Indians traditionally do not have hereditary surnames, the southern Indian name was in most cases registered as such only after immigration of its bearers to the US. Compare Antony .

German, Flemish, and French (mainly Alsace): Latinized (humanistic) patronymic from local equivalents of the Latin personal name Antonius, from its genitive form Antoni(i). In North America, this surname is also an altered form of the German, Dutch, French, and Slovak cognates Antoni 1 and Antony 2.

History: John Anthony of Hampstead, Middlesex, England (now part of north London) migrated to Boston, MA, in 1634. By 1640 he had moved to Providence, RI, where his descendants are still established.