Antoine
A masculine given name of French origin meaning "highly praiseworthy".
Name Census estimates that about 25,255 living Americans carry the first name Antoine. It is a predominantly male name (98.7% of registrations). The average person named Antoine today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Antoine births was 1985 (840 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Antoine. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Antoine with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Antoine is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 364 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
25K
~ 1 in 13,572 Americans
Peak year
1985
840 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,605
Tracked since 1882
Census
Antoine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 21,025 people with the first name Antoine, which placed it at #1,554 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,554
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
21,025 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
76.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Antoine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Antoine is Black at 76.5%. The next largest groups are White (13.2%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Antoine described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Antoine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American76.5% · 16,078
- White13.2% · 2,785
- Two or more races4.2% · 888
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 857
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 267
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 150
Gender
Gender distribution for Antoine
Antoine leans heavily male at 98.7% of total registrations, but 364 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Antoine as a male name
- Ranked #1,605 in 2024
- 106 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (829 births)
Antoine as a female name
- Ranked #10,670 in 1996
- 7 female births in 1996
- Peak: 1978 (20 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Antoine appears almost entirely male. Of the 21,025 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Antoine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Antoine from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 7,751 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Antoine by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Antoine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Antoines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Illinois, New York, California recorded the most babies named Antoine, while Oregon, New Mexico, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 670 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Antoine
The name Antoine is of French origin, derived from the Roman name Antonius. It traces its roots back to the ancient Roman family name Antonii, which may have its origins in the Umbrian town of Antinum. The name Antonius was borne by several notable figures in Roman history, including the general Marcus Antonius, who was part of the Second Triumvirate alongside Octavian and Lepidus.
Antoine gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in France. It was the name of several French kings and nobles, including Antoine of Navarre (1518-1562), who was the father of King Henry IV of France. Another notable bearer of the name was Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694), a French theologian and philosopher who was a prominent figure in the Jansenist movement.
During the Renaissance, Antoine became a popular name among artists and intellectuals. Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) was a renowned French painter known for his fêtes galantes and bucolic scenes. Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794), often referred to as the "father of modern chemistry," made significant contributions to the field, including the discovery of the role of oxygen in combustion.
In literature, Antoine Félix Blanc (1795-1860) was a French novelist and playwright who wrote under the pen name Adolphe Blanc. His works explored themes of social and political commentary during the turbulent times of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era.
The name also has a notable presence in the world of music. Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (1928-2017), better known as Fats Domino, was a legendary American pianist and singer-songwriter who helped popularize rock and roll music in the 1950s and 1960s.
Other notable figures include Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794), a French nobleman and chemist who is widely regarded as the father of modern chemistry; Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), a French writer, poet, and pioneering aviator best known for his novella "The Little Prince"; and Antoine Fuqua (born 1966), an American film director and producer known for his work on films such as "Training Day" and "The Equalizer."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Antoine
People
Antoine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Antoine as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Antoine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Antoine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25,255 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Antoine going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 13,572 US residents.
Is Antoine a common name?
We classify Antoine as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 27,555 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Antoine most popular?
The single biggest year for Antoine was 1985, when 840 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Antoine is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Antoine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 21,025 people with the name Antoine, or 6.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,554 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Antoine in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Antoine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Antoine appears almost entirely male. Of the 21,025 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Antoine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Antoine is Black at 76.5%. The next largest groups are White (13.2%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Antoine most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Antoine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.5% (16,078 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Antoine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Antoine a male name?
Yes, 98.7% of people registered as Antoine in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Antoine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Antoine in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Antoine can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Antoine?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.