"Tristan" now feminine given name

[James Callan]

So it seems. Per NameVoyager (http://www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html), Allison was a boy's name from at least the 1880s to the 1920s -- ranking low in the top 1000 names, but always for boys.

Then, in the 1940s, it turns up as a girl's name -- obscure at the time, but now the 40th most popular girl's name for babies.

According to my wife, Alison used to be the feminine spelling and Allison was the masculine, but they've both been coopted by girls. (Alison isn't quite as popular as Allison, but its popularity follows the same curve without the male preamble.)

 -- James

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>
> You mean to say that by a commodius vicus of recirculation, Allison is again a
> feminine name. Or still, as the case may be.
>
>   "Alysoun" is the name of the female lead in the "The Miller'sTale."  I've
> known several female "Allisons." (That was in the last century, however.)
>
>   And I once knew a female dental hygienist named "Johnnie."
>
>   JL
>
> James Callan <james.callan at COMCAST.NET> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: James Callan
> Subject: Re: "Tristan" now feminine given name
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It's a longstanding trend for parents to give girls names that used to be
> masculine -- my wife, Allison, was named after her grandfather.
>
> A good Web resource that discusses naming trends, rather than just spotting
> them, is the Baby Name Wizard: http://www.babynamewizard.com/blog/
>
> There's an entry on the androgynous trend here (scroll down to the second post
> -- for some reason the direct link doesn't work):
> http://www.babynamewizard.com/blog/archive/2005_11_01_nameblog-archive.html
>
> It doesn't discuss Tristan itself, but if you plug the name into the site's
> Java-based NameVoyager, you'll see that it's never been a top-1000 boy's name in
> the US, hit the girl's list at #819 in the 1970s, shot to #218 in the 1980s,
> #148 in the 1990s, and was #116 in 2004. That translates to over 800 babies per
> million born in the US being given the name.
>
> James Callan
> neologasm.com
>
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