Trystyn
A variant spelling of the Welsh masculine name Tristyn meaning "sad" or "sorrowful".
Name Census estimates that about 293 living Americans carry the first name Trystyn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 73.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Trystyn today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Trystyn births was 2007 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Trystyn. 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
293
~ 1 in 1,169,810 Americans
Peak year
2007
27 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,014
Tracked since 1996
Census
Trystyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 307 people with the first name Trystyn, which placed it at #29,019 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#29,019
National first-name rank
People counted
307
307 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Trystyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trystyn is White at 71.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.1%) and Black (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Trystyn described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Trystyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.3% · 219
- Two or more races10.1% · 31
- Black or African American6.5% · 20
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Trystyn
Trystyn is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 297 total registrations, 217 (73.1%) were male and 80 (26.9%) were female.
Trystyn as a male name
- Ranked #12,014 in 2021
- 6 male births in 2021
- Peak: 2007 (22 births)
Trystyn as a female name
- Ranked #13,267 in 2011
- 8 female births in 2011
- Peak: 2006 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Trystyn on both sides of the split. Of the 305 people counted with this name, 196 were male (64.3%) and 109 were female (35.7%).
Popularity
Trystyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Trystyn from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 164 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Trystyn 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 Trystyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Trystyn
The name Trystyn is a relatively modern variant of the traditional Welsh name Tristan. It is believed to have originated from the Brittonic Celtic words "trist" meaning "sad" or "sorrowful" and the suffix "-an". The name was popularized by the medieval legend of Tristan and Iseult, which dates back to the late 12th century.
This legendary tale, which has its roots in ancient Celtic folklore, tells the story of a Cornish knight named Tristan who falls in love with the Irish princess Iseult, who is betrothed to his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. The tragic love story of Tristan and Iseult has been retold in various forms throughout literature and art across different cultures.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tristan can be found in the 12th-century Norman-French poem "Tristan" by the Anglo-Norman poet Béroul. This work, along with other versions by poets such as Thomas of Britain and Gottfried von Strassburg, helped to spread the popularity of the name across Europe.
Over the centuries, several notable individuals have borne the name Tristan. One of the most famous was Tristan l'Hermite (1601-1655), a French dramatist and poet who was a prominent figure in the literary circles of 17th-century Paris. Another was Tristan da Cunha (1460-1548), a Portuguese explorer and navigator who discovered the remote island group in the South Atlantic Ocean that bears his name.
In more recent times, the name Tristan has been associated with several notable figures, including Tristan Tzara (1896-1963), a Romanian-born French avant-garde poet and essayist who was a founding member of the Dada movement. Another was Tristan Bernard (1866-1947), a French playwright and novelist known for his satirical comedies.
The variant spelling Trystyn is a more recent development, likely influenced by the desire to create a unique or distinctive version of the traditional name. While it shares the same linguistic roots and historical associations as Tristan, Trystyn adds a modern twist to an enduring and evocative name with a rich cultural heritage.
People
Trystyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Trystyn 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
Trystyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Trystyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 293 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Trystyn 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 1,169,810 US residents.
Is Trystyn a common name?
We classify Trystyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 297 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Trystyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Trystyn was 2007, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Trystyn is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Trystyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 307 people with the name Trystyn, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,019 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Trystyn in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Trystyn?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Trystyn on both sides of the split. Of the 305 people counted with this name, 196 were male (64.3%) and 109 were female (35.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Trystyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trystyn is White at 71.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.1%) and Black (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Trystyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Trystyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.3% (219 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Trystyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Trystyn a male name?
Yes, 73.1% of people registered as Trystyn 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.
Is Trystyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Trystyn in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Trystyn can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many Americans are named Trystyn?
Want to know how many people share the name Trystyn? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.