Ghica family
Pantazi was born into the Ghica family, a prestigious group of Phanariote "hospodars" and boyars in the Danubian Principalities, whose origins were Albanian. He was the twelfth of fifteen children born to "Ban" Dimitrie Ghica and his wife Maria Câmpineanu (a boyaress of the Câmpineanu family). Ion, Pantazi, Temistocle and Maria Ghica were the only four children to survive into adulthood.