Tristan

Where Tristan comes from

Old French, the name of a knight, lover of Iseult in medieval romance Tristan and Iseult, from Celtic Drystan derived from drest meaning "riot" or "tumult".
— Wiktionary's entry for Tristan
  • Celtic
  • 2 syllables
Tristan through the years
  1. 1845
    Tristan Corbière born
    French poet
  2. 1896
    Tristan Tzara born
    Romanian-French poet
  3. 1946
    First appearance
    #3,525 among boys with 5 babies, the first year at least five got the name.
  4. 1994
    Around this time: Legends of the Fall
    Film, 1994 · Source
    “The name Tristan later became popular with parents of all classes after Brad Pitt played Tristan Ludlow in the popular 1994 movie Legends of the Fall.”
  5. 1996
    Peak, #68
    5,458 babies named Tristan, its best rank.
  6. 2019
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births, down to #151.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Celtic languages.
  • A female given name.
  • Ellipsis of Tristan da Cunha.
Namesakes
  • Tristan Tzara · Romanian-French poet, 1896–1963
  • Tristan Corbière · French poet, 1845–1875
  • Tristan Bernard · French playwright, 1866–1947
  • Tristan Thompson · Canadian basketball player, born 1991
  • Tristan Wilds · American actor, born 1989

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record. Events show what happened around then, not why parents chose the name. Quotes are from the linked Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).