Antigone

Girl · Greek

Antigone

Say it: an-TIG-uh-nee

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Uncertain. From anti 'against' or 'in place of' and gonē 'birth, offspring', but the intended sense is debated.

Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.

Borne by Macedonian royal women and still given in Greece as Antigoni.

Its wave through time

Rare in the records

In the United States

051018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1997per million babies of that sex
  • 358 babies given this name since 1962
  • At its height in 1997, about 1 in 108,800 girls
  • 6 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Ancient Greece800 BC to 146 BC
  2. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

Ancient GreekGreek

The family of the name

GreekAntigoni
FrenchAntigone

Famous bearers

  • Antigone, heroine of Sophocles' tragedy

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Ancient Greek literature and history (Homer, Herodotus, Plutarch and others)
  • Royal and noble genealogies
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.