Antoinette
Feminine French diminutive of the medieval name Antonia meaning "priceless one".
Name Census estimates that about 39,434 living Americans carry the first name Antoinette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Antoinette today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Antoinette births was 1924 (1,333 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Antoinette. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Antoinette is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 68 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Antoinette have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
39K
~ 1 in 8,692 Americans
Peak year
1924
1,333 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
1989 SSA rank
#2,882
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Antoinette
Out of the 78,732 babies given the name Antoinette since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Antoinette as a male name
- Ranked #5,657 in 1989
- 8 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1966 (8 births)
Antoinette as a female name
- Ranked #2,882 in 2024
- 57 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (1,333 births)
Popularity
Antoinette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Antoinette from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 11,590 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Antoinette 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 Antoinette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Antoinettes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Antoinette, while Montana, North Dakota, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,536 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Antoinette
The name Antoinette is a French feminine form of the Late Roman name Antonius, which itself derived from an old Roman family name of uncertain origin. The root "ant-" possibly meant "inestimable" or "priceless", while "onius" may relate to being constant or continuous. Alternatively, some suggest the name arose from a child's attempt to say "Antonius".
Antoinette gained popularity in France during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, spreading across Catholic Europe. A famous early bearer was Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), the last Queen of France before the French Revolution. She was an unpopular sovereign who met an untimely end by the guillotine, sowing her name's reputation.
Another prominent Antoinette was the Baroque painter Antoinette Bourignon (1616-1680). She founded a religious sect teaching the end of theological study in favor of waiting for God's illumination. Other notables include Antoinette Deshoulieres (1638-1694), a beloved French poet. Antoinette Feyre Grimaldi (1920-2011) was a French actress active in theater, film, and television from the 1930s to 1980s.
Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières (1638-1694) was a French poet admired by Molière, Jean de La Fontaine, and Charles Perrault. She wrote poems and plays satirizing hypocrisy among the upper classes. Her salon hosted cultural icons like Jean Racine and Philippe Quinault. Despite facing misogyny, Deshoulières enjoyed great renown.
Saint Antoinette Guzzo (1676–1767) was an Italian Catholic mystic venerated for her religious writings and charity work. She founded the Franciscan Sisters Oblates of the Most Holy Redeemer and Protectress of Maidens. Her spiritual guidance even influenced Benedict XIV, then Pope.
People
Antoinette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Antoinette 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
Antoinette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Antoinette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 39,434 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Antoinette 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 8,692 US residents.
Is Antoinette a common name?
We classify Antoinette as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 78,732 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Antoinette most popular?
The single biggest year for Antoinette was 1924, when 1,333 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Antoinette is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Antoinette a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Antoinette in the SSA data are female. 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.
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.