Head to head · Girls' names
Hazel vs Nora
#21 vs #20 in 2025
Nora is a whisker ahead (#20 vs #21 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Nora is climbing the charts fast, Hazel is back after a long quiet spell.
Cast your vote2 votes
Which one would you pick?
2 parents have voted — the split shows after you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Nora leads 3 measures of 6; Hazel leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Hazel #139, Nora #57 — Nora higher
- 1890s: Hazel #25, Nora #69 — Hazel higher
- 1900s: Hazel #25, Nora #94 — Hazel higher
- 1910s: Hazel #28, Nora #141 — Hazel higher
- 1920s: Hazel #46, Nora #178 — Hazel higher
- 1930s: Hazel #91, Nora #199 — Hazel higher
- 1940s: Hazel #161, Nora #223 — Hazel higher
- 1950s: Hazel #288, Nora #240 — Nora higher
- 1960s: Hazel #523, Nora #293 — Nora higher
- 1970s: Hazel #932, Nora #378 — Nora higher
- 1980s: Hazel #1161, Nora #410 — Nora higher
- 1990s: Hazel #1112, Nora #459 — Nora higher
- 2000s: Hazel #575, Nora #327 — Nora higher
- 2010s: Hazel #114, Nora #70 — Nora higher
- 2020s: Hazel #24, Nora #25 — Hazel higher
Nora stood higher in 8 of 15 decades; Hazel took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Hazel | Nora |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #139 | #57 |
| 1890s | #25 | #69 |
| 1900s | #25 | #94 |
| 1910s | #28 | #141 |
| 1920s | #46 | #178 |
| 1930s | #91 | #199 |
| 1940s | #161 | #223 |
| 1950s | #288 | #240 |
| 1960s | #523 | #293 |
| 1970s | #932 | #378 |
| 1980s | #1161 | #410 |
| 1990s | #1112 | #459 |
| 2000s | #575 | #327 |
| 2010s | #114 | #70 |
| 2020s | #24 | #25 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Hazel
- Canada#27
- England & Wales#75
- Scotland#94
Nora
- Canada#14
- France#84
- England & Wales#86
- Scotland#86
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Hazel
The hazel tree, or its nut
From Old English hæsel, the ordinary word for the tree. English has also used "hazel" for a greenish-brown eye color since the sixteenth century, which is part of why the word felt like a name.
hæsel (Old English) → hazel (the tree and the nut) → Hazel
How it traveled
The word is Old English, hæsel, with cousins across the Germanic languages, and it stayed a plain botanical term for centuries. In nineteenth-century Britain and America, plant and flower words were adopted wholesale as girls' names, and Hazel arrived on the American charts in that wave and rose quickly.
Nora
Depends on the longer name behind it: "honor" or "light"
Nora is a shortened form, and it has more than one parent. From Honora, the Anglo-Norman and Irish name built on Latin honor, it carries the sense of "honor". From Eleanora and Leonora it inherits those names' own unsettled history. And Arabic Nura, from nur, "light", reaches the same spelling by a completely separate road. All three are in real use, which is why no single meaning can be given for the spelling alone.
Honoria → Honora → Nóra → Nora
How it traveled
The clearest line runs through Latin Honoria and Honorata to Honora, which the Normans brought to Ireland, where it became one of the most-used women's names for centuries in the forms Nóra and Nóirín. Irish emigration carried it to America, which is why it has never been absent from US records.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Hazel
HAY-zul
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling is the everyday English word, so misreadings are almost unheard of among English speakers.
- Haze — The most common informal shortening; used among family and friends rather than in writing.
- Hazy — An affectionate childhood form, generally outgrown.
- Zel — Occasionally used within families; rare outside them.
- Hazel — Most bearers simply use the full name — at two syllables it is already short, and nicknames are optional here in a way they are not for longer names.
Nora
NOR-uh
Stress on the first syllable everywhere it is used. In Irish, Nóra sounds much the same; the Arabic Nura is closer to NOO-rah, which is a different name meeting the same spelling.
- Nonie — The long-standing family pet form for Nora and Honora alike; informal, rarely written down.
- Norie — Informal, mostly spoken within the family; does not stand alone as a given name.
- No — A playground clip; useful to know it exists before someone else finds it.
Who has carried each name
Hazel
No documented entry for Hazel yet.
Nora
Nora Ephron (b. 1941) — Wrote When Harry Met Sally and directed Sleepless in Seattle
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Hazel if you want…
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 12% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 63% for Nora
Choose Nora if you want…
- a name that charts abroad tooNora is on the national lists of Canada, France, England & Wales and Scotland
- a name that feels very nowNora is climbing the charts fast
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Hazel
Strengths
- Spelled exactly like the common English word, so it is written correctly on the first try by almost everyone.
- A single obvious pronunciation, with no regional variants to correct.
- An unbroken record in English use since the Victorian plant-name fashion, and still rising now.
To consider
- It is rising sharply, and the wider plant-name family is rising with it — a Hazel is likely to share a classroom with Ivy, Willow or Olive even if not with another Hazel.
- Because so many living bearers belong to older generations, some people still hear it as a name from their grandparents' era rather than a current one.
- In mid-century America a popular television series centered on a housekeeper named Hazel, an association a few older listeners may still make.
Nora
Strengths
- Spells itself. Four letters, one obvious pronunciation, no silent anything — a rare combination for a name this old.
- Unbroken presence in US records since the charts began, so it has never needed reviving and has no single decade attached to it.
- Works in French, English, Italian, Hungarian, Albanian, Arabic and the Scandinavian languages with little or no adjustment.
To consider
- Norah with an h is equally established, so she will spend her life confirming which one she is. Neither spelling is the odd one.
- The rise has been steep and is still going. A name that feels uncrowded now may be sharing the classroom register in a few years.
- It sits in a busy sound-neighborhood — Nova, Nola, Cora, Norah — and mishearings in noisy rooms are common.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Hazel
12%chance Hazel feels dated by 2040
Hazel has held the top-100 across 6 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
Nora
63%chance Nora feels dated by 2040
Nora is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Hazel and Nora in full.
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Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Gorgeous — and about to be everywhere
- all guides
Every list here names both Hazel and Nora — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Hazel or Nora — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Hazel or Nora?
- Nora, in 2025: Nora ranked #20 with 6,380 babies; Hazel ranked #21 with 6,318 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Hazel or Nora?
- Neither has pulled away: over the last five years Hazel moved up 10 places and Nora moved up 10 places.
- Which is the older name, Hazel or Nora?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Hazel and Nora?
- About 111,000 people named Hazel are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 134,000 people named Nora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Hazels or Noras in the classroom?
- Hazel will almost certainly be the only one in school. Nora will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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