"Tristan" now feminine given name

[Jonathan Lighter]

Whoa !  A dad named Shirley and a mom named John !

  There's a cuttin'-edge country-western title for ya !

  JL

"Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC"
Subject: Re: "Tristan" now feminine given name
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> She had a friend called "Bud
> Weiser" who never would admit his real first name was
> anything except Bud.

I went to elementary school with Phineas Newton. He went by Figg
Newton.

> Male sportswriter Shirley Povich, whose son is Maury Povich.
> Shirley came from an area (somewhere in Maine?) where Shirley
> was a common boy's name, and once found himself in Who's Who
> in American Women.

Former UT Knoxville football coach (and player) Johnny Majors had a
father named Shirley Majors, who was lesser known, but also a good
coach. His mother was named John. From a Knoxville New Sentinel
article:

"Former Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty once introduced John
Terrill Majors as "the only coach in the country with a father named
Shirley and a mother named John."

Even though everybody knew John's mother as Elizabeth, her full name was
John Elizabeth Bobo Majors. Her father and grandfather were also named
John.

She married Shirley Majors, who was a farmer and barber before he became
a coach in high school and later at the University of the South. "

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