Marie-Antoinette was the fifteenth child (the youngest daughter, she also had a brother) of Empress Maria Theresia of Austria and Franz I. She was born on November 2, 1755, at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. She was named Maria-Antonia-Josepha-Johanna. Maria in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Antoinette in honor of St. Anthony of Padua, Josephine in honor of her brother Archduke Joseph, and Johanna in honor of St. John the Evangelist. Here's how one minister described the newborn: "A petite but perfectly healthy female Archduke."
Marie Antoinette grew up in the company of her sister Maria Carolina, who was three years older than her, and her brother Masmillian, who was a year younger. Her other brothers Joseph II, Leopold II and Ferdinand already played important roles in the Habsburg dynasty.


Translated with DeepL.com (free version)