Tristen
A masculine name of Welsh origin meaning "sad, pensive, or melancholy".
Name Census estimates that about 25,020 living Americans carry the first name Tristen. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Tristen today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tristen births was 1996 (1,478 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tristen. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Tristen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
25K
~ 1 in 13,699 Americans
Peak year
1996
1,478 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,432
Tracked since 1968
Census
Tristen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,664 people with the first name Tristen, which placed it at #1,570 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,570
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
20,664 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tristen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tristen is White at 62.7%. The next largest groups are Black (14.7%) and Hispanic (11.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Tristen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Tristen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.7% · 12,946
- Black or African American14.7% · 3,043
- Hispanic or Latino11.1% · 2,297
- Two or more races7.5% · 1,559
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 417
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 402
Gender
Gender distribution for Tristen
Tristen leans heavily male at 83.6% of total registrations, but 4,177 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tristen as a male name
- Ranked #1,432 in 2024
- 127 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1996 (1,188 births)
Tristen as a female name
- Ranked #15,054 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1996 (290 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tristen leans strongly male. 17,070 people counted with this name were male (82.6%), compared with 3,600 female bearers (17.4%).
Popularity
Tristen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tristen from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 10,866 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tristen by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Tristen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tristens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Tristen, while Vermont, Maine, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 459 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tristen
The name Tristen originated from the Old French name Tristran, which was derived from the Celtic British name Drystan or Trystan. It is believed that the name has its roots in the Brittonic words "trist" meaning "sad" or "sorrowful" and the suffix "-an" indicating a diminutive form. The name gained popularity through the medieval romance of Tristan and Iseult, a tragic love story that was part of the Arthurian legends.
The earliest known written record of the name Tristen can be found in the 12th century Old French prose romance, the Roman de Tristan, written by Thomas of Britain. This work was based on earlier Celtic legends and was a significant contribution to the development of the Arthurian cycle of stories.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Tristen was Sir Tristram, a knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He was renowned for his bravery and skill in battle, as well as his tragic love affair with the beautiful Iseult, who was already married to King Mark of Cornwall.
Another notable figure was Tristram Coffyn, an early American settler born in 1609 in Devon, England. He was one of the first settlers of Nantucket Island and played a crucial role in establishing the island's whaling industry, which became a major economic force in the region.
Tristram Shandy, the fictional character created by the English writer Laurence Sterne in his novel "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," published in 1759, is another famous bearer of the name. The novel is considered a landmark in the development of the novel form and is renowned for its innovative narrative style and humor.
In the realm of music, Tristram Cary, an English composer and pioneer of electronic music, made significant contributions to the field. He was born in 1925 and is best known for his work in creating electronic soundtracks for films and television shows, including the iconic "Doctor Who" theme.
Tristram Hunt, a British historian, broadcaster, and former politician, was born in 1974. He served as a Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central from 2010 to 2017 and was also the Shadow Secretary of State for Education under the leadership of Ed Miliband.
People
Tristen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tristen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tristen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tristen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25,020 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tristen going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 13,699 US residents.
Is Tristen a common name?
We classify Tristen as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 25,429 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tristen most popular?
The single biggest year for Tristen was 1996, when 1,478 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tristen is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tristen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,664 people with the name Tristen, or 6.84 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,570 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Tristen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Tristen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tristen leans strongly male. 17,070 people counted with this name were male (82.6%), compared with 3,600 female bearers (17.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Tristen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tristen is White at 62.7%. The next largest groups are Black (14.7%) and Hispanic (11.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Tristen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tristen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.7% (12,946 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Tristen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tristen a male name?
Yes, 83.6% of people registered as Tristen in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Tristen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tristen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Tristen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Tristen?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Tristen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.