Tristram Name Meaning & Origin
Tristram
Origin of the name Tristan:
From the Old French Tristran, which is from the Gaelic Drystan, a name derived from drest (tumult, riot). The name was borne in medieval legend by a knight who was sent to Israel by King Mark of Cornwall to bring Isolde back to be the king's bride. On the return trip, Tristan and Isolde accidentally drank a love potion intended for the king and fell in love. Tristan left to fight for King Howel of Brittany and, seriously wounded in battle, sent for Isolde. She arrived too late and died from grief next to Tristan's deathbed. The tale was the subject of many popular tragedies during the Middle Ages.
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- Nicknames for Tristram
Tris
- Meanings and history of the name Tristram
An old English form of Tristan.
- Famous real-life people named Tristram
Tris Speaker, member of Baseball Hall of Fame, inducted as a Cleveland Indian
- Tristram in song, story & screen
Sir Tristram, from the legends of Tristram and Isolde.
"Tristram Shandy," English novel by Laurence Sterne. Tristram's father, who has strong opinions on names, has "the most unconquerable aversion for Tristram; - he had the lowest and most contemptible opinion of it of anything in the world... Melancholy dissyllable of sound! which, to his ears, was unison to Nincompoop, and every name vituperative under heaven." Tristram is named accidentally, as a miscommunication of Trismegistus.