Tristan

Tristan arrives from a sorrowful legend. The Celtic hero of the medieval Tristan and Isolde romance — a Cornish knight who drinks a fatal love potion meant for his uncle's bride — carried a name likely Pictish in origin, later reshaped by French poets who heard triste, "sad," in its opening syllable. Wagner's 1865 opera re-enshrined the story, and the 1994 Brad Pitt film Legends of the Fall sent American naming charts climbing. Tristan now holds around 267, a romantic literary pick with genuine weight. Two syllables, a crisp T on either end. Brooding without melodrama, medieval without mustiness. A name for a child who will read late.