Tristain
A masculine name of Old French origin meaning "sorrowful" or "sad".
Name Census estimates that about 369 living Americans carry the first name Tristain. It is a predominantly male name (97.1% of registrations). The average person named Tristain today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tristain births was 1996 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tristain. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
369
~ 1 in 928,874 Americans
Peak year
1996
30 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2019 SSA rank
#10,711
Tracked since 1982
Gender
Gender distribution for Tristain
Tristain leans heavily male at 97.1% of total registrations, but 11 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tristain as a male name
- Ranked #10,711 in 2019
- 7 male births in 2019
- Peak: 2010 (26 births)
Tristain as a female name
- Ranked #13,630 in 1997
- 6 female births in 1997
- Peak: 1997 (6 births)
Popularity
Tristain: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tristain from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 135 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Tristain remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tristain by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Tristain during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tristains live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tristain
The name Tristain is believed to have originated from the Old French name Tristan, which was derived from the Brythonic Celtic name Drystan or Drystyn. This name is thought to have originated in the late 5th or early 6th century in the region that is now known as Brittany, France.
The name Tristain is closely associated with the legendary figure of Tristan, a character in the Arthurian romance and medieval folklore. The story of Tristan and Iseult, a tragic love story, was widely popularized in the 12th century through the works of various poets and writers across Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tristain can be found in the 12th-century Norman-French romance "Tristan and Iseult" by the poet Béroul. This work is considered one of the earliest known versions of the Tristan legend and helped to establish the name's literary and cultural significance.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Tristain or its variations. One of the earliest known figures was Tristan de Nanteuil (c. 1201-1270), a French nobleman and crusader who participated in the Seventh Crusade. Another notable bearer of the name was Tristram Coffyn (1609-1681), an early English settler in Massachusetts Bay Colony.
In literature, the name Tristain has been used by several authors, including Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" (1485), where Tristram is one of the central characters. The name also appears in works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" (1865).
Other notable individuals with the name Tristain include Tristain Tzara (1896-1963), a Romanian-born French poet and a key figure in the Dada movement, and Tristain Kelly (born 1968), an Irish former rugby union player.
People
Tristain + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tristain as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tristain: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tristain?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 369 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tristain going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 928,874 US residents.
Is Tristain a common name?
We classify Tristain as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 375 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tristain most popular?
The single biggest year for Tristain was 1996, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tristain is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Tristain a male name?
Yes, 97.1% of people registered as Tristain in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.