"Tristan" now feminine given name

[Jonathan Lighter]

Some months ago I casually picked up a popular magazine (so popular it seemedc to have more photos and random swashes of color than words) that featured a gush-filled article on what today's stars were naming their babies.

  If I only I could remember the magazine !  Or the names !

  Believe me, "Tristan," "Medea," "Dweezil" and "Moon Unit" weren't there.  What was there was really appalling !  In fact, writhe-worthy !

  Maybe I can dig up the reference.


  JL


Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "Tristan" now feminine given name
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FWIW, there are a couple of neo-blaxploitation movies out featuring a
woman called "Madea" [m^di@]. I could be wrong, but this strikes as
punning on the fact that one of the usual BE pronunciations of "mother
dear" very nearly falls together with the sE pronunciation of "Medea."

I'm not sure how much competition there is between "mama" and "mother
dear." E.g., my mother addresses and refers to her mother as "Mama."
However, my grandmother always referred to my mother as "yo'/y'all's
mother dear" and my brothers and I always addressed our mother as
"Mother Dear" and referred to her the same way. Being "boojie," we've
always used the spelling pronunciation. The "standard" BE practice is
to address one's mother as "muh-DEE-uh," but to refer to her as
"muthuh de-uh." Cf. the blues line, "I liiked at my mother dear and I
didn't even crack a smile."

-Wilson

On 2/23/06, David Bowie wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: David Bowie
> Subject: Re: "Tristan" now feminine given name
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From: Jonathan Lighter
>
> > As you may remember from a few weeks back, trendsetters in this
> > department were the parents of film actress "Tristen [sic] Skyler"
> > (born in the ' 70s) and of sex columnist "Tristan Taormino" (probably
> > another ' 70s baby - just guessing).
>
> > I'm sure that "Tristan and Isolde" mean nothing to 99.9% of today's
> > Americans.
>
> > Nor does "Medea," so watch out !
>
> A female friend of mine, b. 1971, is named Tristyn.
>
> I actually know a couple who considered naming their daughter Medea
> (among other amazing ideas--they wanted something mythological), but didn't.
>
> --
> David Bowie http://pmpkn.net/lx
> Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
> house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
> chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>
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>

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