Head to head · Girls' names
Hazel vs Penelope
#21 vs #22 in 2025
Hazel is a whisker ahead (#21 vs #22 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Hazel is back after a long quiet spell, Penelope is climbing the charts fast.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Hazel leads 5 measures of 6; Penelope leads 0.
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, Penelope #892 — Hazel higher
- 1890s: Hazel #25, Penelope #1378 — Hazel higher
- 1900s: Hazel #25, Penelope #1827 — Hazel higher
- 1910s: Hazel #28, Penelope #1462 — Hazel higher
- 1920s: Hazel #46, Penelope #1005 — Hazel higher
- 1930s: Hazel #91, Penelope #830 — Hazel higher
- 1940s: Hazel #161, Penelope #282 — Hazel higher
- 1950s: Hazel #288, Penelope #411 — Hazel higher
- 1960s: Hazel #523, Penelope #577 — Hazel higher
- 1970s: Hazel #932, Penelope #882 — Penelope higher
- 1980s: Hazel #1161, Penelope #1904 — Hazel higher
- 1990s: Hazel #1112, Penelope #1903 — Hazel higher
- 2000s: Hazel #575, Penelope #649 — Hazel higher
- 2010s: Hazel #114, Penelope #73 — Penelope higher
- 2020s: Hazel #24, Penelope #24
Hazel stood higher in 12 of 14 decades; Penelope took the 2010s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Hazel | Penelope |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #139 | #892 |
| 1890s | #25 | #1378 |
| 1900s | #25 | #1827 |
| 1910s | #28 | #1462 |
| 1920s | #46 | #1005 |
| 1930s | #91 | #830 |
| 1940s | #161 | #282 |
| 1950s | #288 | #411 |
| 1960s | #523 | #577 |
| 1970s | #932 | #882 |
| 1980s | #1161 | #1904 |
| 1990s | #1112 | #1903 |
| 2000s | #575 | #649 |
| 2010s | #114 | #73 |
| 2020s | #24 | #24 |
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
Penelope
- England & Wales#36
- Canada#49
- Scotland#71
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.
Penelope
Either "weaver" or a kind of duck, from Greek
Two readings compete. One links Πηνελόπη to πήνη (pēnē), "thread" or "weft", plus a root meaning face or eye — a reading that suits the loom in the Odyssey so neatly that scholars have long suspected it was invented to fit. The other, generally preferred by Greek etymologists, connects the name to πηνέλοψ (pēnelops), a wild duck. Neither has won outright.
Πηνελόπη (Penelopē) → Penelope (Latin) → Penelope (English)
How it traveled
The name is Greek and reaches us first through the Odyssey, composed in the eighth century BC, where Penelope holds Ithaca together for twenty years of her husband's absence. Roman writers carried the spelling into Latin unchanged, and English took it up during the Renaissance revival of classical names, when educated families began christening daughters out of Homer and Ovid.
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.
Penelope
puh-NEL-uh-pee
Four syllables, stress on the second. The final -e is pronounced, not silent — readers who meet the name in print before they hear it sometimes try "PEN-uh-lope", which is the one thing to head off early.
- Penny — The standard English short form for generations, and long used as a given name in its own right.
- Pen — Clipped and informal, mostly within families and among friends.
- Nell — Used in British and Irish families, partly through Penelope's old role as an English substitute for Fionnghuala.
- Nellie — The older, more affectionate extension of Nell; also stands alone as a given name.
- Also Poppy.
Who has carried each name
Hazel
No documented entry for Hazel yet.
Penelope
Penélope Cruz (b. 1974) — First Spanish actress to win an Oscar
Penelope Wilton (b. 1946) — Downton Abbey's Isobel Crawley
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 with fewer syllablesHazel is 2 syllables to Penelope's 4
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 12% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 59% for Penelope
Choose Penelope if you want…
- a name with more sound in itPenelope runs 4 syllables, Hazel 2
- a name that feels very nowPenelope 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.
Penelope
Strengths
- A documented record going back to Homer, with the spelling essentially unchanged since Latin — nothing about it needs explaining or defending.
- Penny, Pen and Nell are all long-established short forms, so there is a formal version and a casual one built in.
- Works in Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese with at most an added accent, and Greek is its home language.
To consider
- The final -e trips people up in writing and in speech; expect a lifetime of gentle corrections from anyone who has only seen it on a page.
- It is climbing quickly, so a child born now may meet more Penelopes as a teenager than as a toddler, even if she is the only one in her year at first.
- Penny, the most natural short form, is also the word for a coin — worth knowing if you would rather she went by the full name.
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.
Penelope
59%chance Penelope feels dated by 2040
Penelope 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 Penelope in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Hazel and Penelope?
Put both to the vote.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
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 Penelope — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Hazel or Penelope — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Hazel or Penelope?
- Hazel, in 2025: Hazel ranked #21 with 6,318 babies; Penelope ranked #22 with 6,225 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Hazel or Penelope?
- Hazel. Over the last five years Hazel moved up 10 places; Penelope moved up 4 places.
- Which is the older name, Hazel or Penelope?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Hazel and Penelope?
- About 111,000 people named Hazel are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 104,000 people named Penelope are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Hazels or Penelopes in the classroom?
- Hazel will almost certainly be the only one in school. Penelope 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
Keep playing
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