Hazel
Feminine · Old English roots · “The hazel tree”
Hazel is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 302,580 girls against 2,889 boys since 1880. See Hazel as a boy name
Hazel began as a tree — the hazel that grows in English hedgerows and drops nuts in autumn — and became a name during the Victorian enthusiasm for calling daughters after plants, alongside Rose, Ivy and Olive. It has been in continuous use in English ever since, and after decades of being carried mostly by older generations it is now climbing again in the United States, Canada and Britain at once. Two easy syllables, and no one has to ask how it is spelled.
How old is the name Hazel?
Hazel was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Hazel alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 111,000 people named Hazel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hazel most popular?
Hazel peaked in 1897, reaching #18 nationally. Today it ranks #21, 3 places below that high. See the whole 1897 chart.
Where it comes from
From hæsel (Old English) to Hazel
The story of Hazel
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. It traveled with English wherever English went, which is why it appears in Canadian, English and Scottish rankings today rather than only in the US. Hazel wood also has its own long working history in Europe — coppiced for fencing, walking sticks and the forked rods used by water diviners — so the tree was familiar to almost everyone who first heard the name.
Meaning
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.
How the name formed
- hæselOld English
- hazelthe tree and the nut
- Hazel
Pronouncing Hazel
HAY-zul
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling is the everyday English word, so misreadings are almost unheard of among English speakers.
Nicknames for Hazel
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19187,615 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #18reached in 1897
- Change vs 2022
- +2.5%6,318 in 2025, from 6,161
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Hazel in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio. International figures from Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Hazels among us
people named Hazel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 254 born in 2025 was named Hazel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
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.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Hazel is headed
Hazel should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Hazel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hazel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- 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.
- Charts in Canada, England and Wales, and Scotland as well as the US — familiar across the English-speaking world.
- Works without a nickname, but has Haze and Hazy available if one is wanted.
- 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.
- The eye-color sense invites the occasional remark if the child's eyes turn out blue or brown.
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Hazel
Feminine · Old English roots · #21 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hazels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 111,000 people named Hazel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hazel in 2025?
- Hazel ranks #21 among US girl names in 2025, with 6,318 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Hazel?
- About 1 in every 254 US girls born in 2025 was named Hazel — 6,318 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hazel with classmates?
- Hazel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hazel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Nora#20 · Penelope#22 · Chloe#23 · Camila#19 · Ellie#24 · Lucy#24 · Lily#18 · Elizabeth#17
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hazel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hazel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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