Tristan, Tristram or Tristen is a given name derived from Welsh drust (meaning "noise", "tumult"), influenced by the French word triste and Welsh/Cornish/Breton trist, both of which mean "bold" or "sad", "sorrowful".

The name Tristan became particularly well-used in the United States by parents who had attended college after it was used for a character on All Creatures Great and Small, a 1978 British television series based on the memoirs of James Herriot.

The name Tristan later became popular with parents of all classes after Brad Pitt played Tristan Ludlow in the popular 1994 movie Legends of the Fall, and also increased the usage of variant spellings Tristen, Tristin, Triston and Trystan, all of which also appeared among the 1,000 most popular names for boys in the United States in 1995.

[3] Tristan has been consistently among the top 1000 names given to baby boys in the United States since 1971.

[4] The name has been used in the Anglosphere and in other countries such as Belgium, France, Iceland, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain.