"Tristan" now feminine given name

[Brenda Lester]

In Hans C. Andersen's tale THE SNOW QUEEN, Gerda's boyfriend is Kay.
  My name is Brenda Kaye. I don't know why my mother attached the E on the latter.




Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:  Have never thought of "Kerry" as a girl's name. And "Robin Hood" was a guy.

  I did have a female student about a quarter of a century ago named  "Robyn Hood," which is how they spelled the outlaw's name in Middle  English.

  Onomastically twisty, if you ask me.

  JL

FRITZ JUENGLING  wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: FRITZ JUENGLING
Subject: Re: "Tristan" now feminine given name
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We  have some friends whose daughters are named Robbie and Dani (sp?). Of  course, the tendency to use traditionally boys' names for girls is well  known. How often does it go the other way? Examples? I have two  brothers-in-law whose names are Robin and Kerry. The former I know has  been used as a boy's name for a long time, but even as a kid, I always  felt uneasy about a boy being named Robin. Well, I still can't get used  to Kerry.
Fritz

>>> alphatwin2002 at YAHOO.COM 2/23/2006 2:53 PM >>>
My friend since high school was named Jim by her father. He wanted a boy, of course.



Wilson Gray wrote: My mother has a woman friend down home in Texas named "Johnnie." Back
in St. Louis, I had a male acquaintance whose first name was "Fay."
"Fay" was also used as a hypochoristic equivalent of "ofay." The poor
guy took a lot of ribbing, given that his ancestral line was probably
black back to Africa.

-Wilson


On 2/23/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: "Tristan" now feminine given name
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>
> What are the most popular cars? Find out at Yahoo! Autos
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Yahoo! Mail
Use Photomail to share photos without annoying attachments.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Brings words and photos together (easily) with
 PhotoMail  - it's free and works with Yahoo! Mail.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------

 What are the most popular cars? Find out at Yahoo! Autos

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org