"Tristan" now feminine given name

[Beverly Flanigan]

My brother John was called variously "Johnny" or "Jack" by our father but
never by anyone else in the family (in the 40s and 50s).  Predictably, he
became exclusively John.  But I had a classmate John who was always called
Jack or Jackie.  I suspect, with Arnold, that once Jackie became a girl's
name (esp. after Jackie Kennedy), it was frozen as feminine.

At 02:55 PM 2/24/2006, you wrote:
>Except for JFK, I've never known a "John" who was called "Jack."  In the
>first class I ever taught I had a "Jack," but that was actually his given
>name.  So far as I can recall, I've known only one other "Jack" (also his
>given name), and that was in the '50s.
>
>   JL
>
>sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: sagehen
>Subject: Re: "Tristan" now feminine given name
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>John was certainly, mid-century, the most common boy's given name, it was
>nearly always nicknamed "Jack." I can't remember ever knowing a John who
>wasn't Jack from the '30s to the '70s. This might have been at least
>partly because "john" was also the most common designation for the toilet.
>Shortening and nicknaming seems to be less common now than fifty years ago.
>Perhaps due to more parental management of kids' lives.
>A. Murie
>
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