text: "Antoinette" is a feminine form of the Latin name "Antonius" (from which "Antone" and numerous variations are derived).\n\nYou will tend to find two basic meanings suggested for the name.   Unfortunately, probably neither is correct.\n\nWhat we DO know is that the Latin name was the surname (family name) of a prestigious Roman family.   The word/name itself is generally thought to be Etruscan... but we do not know what it meant!\n\nAs for the supposed meanings:\n\n1) in the 17th century some English folk surmised that the Latin name was derived from the Greek word "anthos" meaning "flower"  (a root word found in the English word "anthology"), so they added an "h" where there is no evidence one had ever been\n\n2) many baby name sites list the word as from Latin and say it means something like "priceless" OR "praiseworthy, beyond praise" (not quite the same?!).   But we have no evidence of a Latin word like "anton" with this meaning.   Perhaps this idea was suggested as a description of the status of the Roman family that bore this name...  but that is not evidence for the word itself having that meaning.\n\nUnfortunately, this is just one of those cases where we do not know!  (Of course, baby name books and the like will not tell you that!  They have to find something interesting and attradtive to list, so they sometimes pick up ideas with little or no real basis.)  \n\nNote that behindthename.com is an exception to many sites of this sort -- I find it to be careful and reliable.  (And if we don't know something they'll say so!)\n\nhttp://behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=anthony