Gordon Thomasson notes that the name "antion" first appears in Alma 11:19 referring to the largest Nephite weights and units of measure of gold. According to Thomasson, what is intriguing is that this name appears in later chapters of the text of Alma as part of other names. It first appears in Alma 12:20 referring to a chief ruler of Ammonihah, one "Antionah," a big man in status and self-esteem. Later the name "antion" appears as part of the name of "Antionum" (Alma 31:3), the pride-in-wealth city of the Zoramites.
With respect to the name Antionum, Thomasson hypothesizes that in order to facilitate editorial condensation of the Nephite records, Mormon used a process of metonymic naming wherein he substituted symbolically or historically "loaded" names for the actual personal names of given individuals. Metonymy or metonymic naming involves "naming by association," a metaphoric process of linking two concepts or persons together in such a way as to tell us more about the latter by means of what we already know about the former. Thus the name for the largest unit of gold was linked to the pride-in-wealth city of Antionum. [Gordon C. Thomasson, "What's in a Name? Book of Mormon Language, Names, and [Metonymic] Naming," in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Volume 3, Number 1 (Spring 1994), pp. 8, 10, 16] [See the commentary on Alma 31:3, 31:7]
Geographical [Theory Map]: Alma 31:3 The Zoramites Had Gathered to Antionum (17th Year)