Tristan
Feminine · “Sorrowful”
Tristan is given to both — 6,551 girls and 124,243 boys since 1880. See Tristan as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Tristan is the knight of one of the great medieval love stories, and his name carries a pun that the medieval authors made themselves: they linked it to French triste, sad, because he was born in sorrow. The American girls' peak is 1996.
How old is the name Tristan?
Tristan first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Tristan alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 6,400 people named Tristan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tristan most popular?
Tristan peaked in 1996, reaching #590 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 4,964 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Drustan to Tristan
The story of Tristan
The Tristan and Iseult romance is one of the two great love stories of medieval Europe, older than Lancelot and Guinevere and probably its model; it exists in French, German, Norse and English versions from the twelfth century, and Wagner made an opera of it in 1865. A sixth-century stone in Cornwall bears the name Drustanus, which is generally taken as the historical root. As an American given name Tristan rose from the 1970s for boys and, in smaller numbers, for girls in the 1990s — the girls' peak in 1996 sits inside the general surname-and-literary wave of that decade.
Meaningscholars disagree
Sorrowful, by medieval wordplay; originally uncertain
The name descends from a Pictish or Brittonic Drustan, a diminutive of Drust, whose meaning is not recoverable. French romancers reshaped it as Tristan and explicitly connected it to triste, sad, because his mother died at his birth — a folk etymology invented in the twelfth century and stated in the texts themselves. Both facts are true: the original is unknown and the sad reading is genuinely medieval.
How the name formed
- Drustan
- Tristan
Related forms: Tristan · Tristan · Trystan · Tristán
Pronouncing Tristan
TRISS-tun
Two syllables, stress on the first. French Tristan is trees-TAHN with the weight at the back and a nasal ending; Spanish Tristán also stresses the second.
Nicknames for Tristan
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1962
- Most girls named
- 1996386 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #590reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- +83.3%22 in 2025, from 12
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Tristan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tristan in French — same name
- Tristan in German — same name
- Trystan in Welsh — spelling variant
- Tristán in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Maryland.
Tristans among us
people named Tristan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Tristan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Richelle test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tristan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Richelle climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Richelle's path sketches the road Tristan is walking now.
Tristan sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Tristan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tristan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries one of the great romances of European literature.
- Tris works as a short form and is a name in its own right.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- It is overwhelmingly a boy's name in American use.
- The sad reading is a medieval invention rather than the true etymology.
- The story it comes from ends badly for everyone in it.
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What they receive
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Tristan
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tristans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,400 people named Tristan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tristan in 2025?
- Tristan ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tristan?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Tristan — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tristan with classmates?
- Tristan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tristan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Felicia#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tristan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tristan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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