Polish and Catalan form of Antonius, a Roman family name of uncertain meaning, possibly 'priceless.'
Antoni is the Catalan, Polish, and Slavic form of Anthony — a name drawn from the ancient Roman gens Antonia, one of Rome's great plebeian families. The etymology of Antonius itself is debated: some ancient sources connected it to the Greek anthos (flower), though modern scholars consider this folk etymology, and the name may derive from an Etruscan root. Whatever its ultimate origin, the name entered history permanently through Mark Antony — Marcus Antonius — the Roman general and statesman whose alliance with Cleopatra and subsequent defeat by Augustus became one of antiquity's most mythologized love stories, immortalized by Shakespeare in Antony and Cleopatra.
The Antoni variant carries particular weight in Catalonia, where it was borne by Antoni Gaudí — the visionary Catalan architect whose organic, nature-inspired modernisme works, including the still-unfinished Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona, have made him one of the most recognizable architects in history. Gaudí was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2021, adding a layer of sainthood to his artistic legend and keeping his first name continuously in cultural conversation. The Catalan and Polish form Antoni thus carries both Mediterranean architectural grandeur and Central European Catholic tradition in its five letters.
In the twenty-first century, Antoni received fresh visibility through Antoni Porowski, the food and wine expert on Netflix's reboot of Queer Eye, who made the name feel warm, approachable, and culturally fluent to a new generation of viewers. The spelling distinguishes it from Anthony while retaining all the name's ancient authority, offering a gentle European distinction.