Some names announce a decade. Hazel announces a hedgerow. It is the English word for a small nut tree and for a greenish brown color, and it has been a girls’ name in the United States for every year the federal records have existed.
That makes it an unusual kind of revival. Hazel spent six decades sliding down the charts, was written off as an old lady name by the 1970s, and then climbed back to its highest standing ever in the 2020s, higher than it reached during its first run a century ago.
Verdict: Hazel is a settled, easily recognized pick with real history behind it. It offers the vintage warmth of Eleanor or Clara plus a botanical thread and a wisdom legend, and in 2026 it reads as current rather than dated.
Hazel Overview
- Meaning: the hazel tree, and a light greenish brown color.
- Origin: English, from the Old English word hæsel, with roots reaching back through Proto-Germanic to an ancient Indo-European tree word.
- Gender: a girls’ name in practice. Boys make up under 1 percent of everyone on record with the name.
- Popularity: 21st for American girls in 2025, with its best rank on record, 18th, set in 2023; half of everyone ever recorded with the name was born after 1927.
- Variations: Hazelle, Haize, Hasel, Hazell, Avellana.
- Nicknames: Haze, Hazelnut, Zella, Zelle, Zee, Azie, Hay-Hay.
- Namesakes: Hazel Bishop, Hazel Scott, Hazel Court.
What Does Hazel Mean?
Hazel means the hazel tree and a soft greenish brown color (1). It is a plant word first and a color name second, and both senses are still in everyday English.
The second layer is where the name gets its character. In Irish tradition the hazel was the tree of wisdom rather than a decorative shrub: nine hazels grew around the Well of Wisdom and dropped their nuts into the water, where the Salmon of Knowledge ate them, and whoever ate that salmon gained what it knew (per Trees for Life’s survey of hazel folklore).
So a parent choosing Hazel is choosing a nature name that carries an argument about knowledge, not just a pretty picture.
Where Does the Name Hazel Come From?
Hazel is an English name taken straight from the Old English word hæsel, the ordinary term for the nut tree (2). Behind that sits Proto-Germanic hasalaz, which also produced Old Norse hasl and German Hasel, and behind that an Indo-European root that gave Latin corulus and Old Irish coll, both meaning hazel.
The color sense arrived much later, and Shakespeare put it in print first. In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio needles Benvolio for picking fights over nothing: “thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes.” That 1592 line is the earliest known use of hazel for the color of eyes (3).
The word only became a girls’ name in the late 19th century, during the botanical wave that also lifted Rose, Ivy, and Olive. Parents were moving away from the strictly biblical and royal names of earlier generations, and the garden was a fresh place to look.
How Popular Is the Name Hazel?
Hazel ranked 21st among American girls in 2025, with 6,318 babies given the name, and its best rank on record came two years earlier at 18th (4). That is roughly one girl in every 254.
The curve is a near perfect century-long U. Hazel was already 27th in 1913, the first year Social Security’s rates can be fairly compared, then fell for six straight decades until it was barely used in the 1970s and 1980s. It turned around in the 1990s and has been climbing since, with the federal series scoring the name as rising and up 253 percent. Across all 146 years of the data, 302,580 girls have been recorded with the name.
Two things make the modern run different from the old one. Raw birth counts actually ran higher still in the late 1910s than today, 7,615 girls named Hazel in 1918 alone against 6,318 now, so the modern difference is in rank and share, not volume. Its share of newborn girls today, 3,931 per million, is about half what it was in 1913, 7,348 per million, so it feels much less common in daily life than it did to a Hazel born before World War I.
For a parent choosing today, that combination is the useful part. At about one girl in 254, Hazel is a name everyone recognizes and spells without help, but rarely one a child shares with a classmate. Its climb was already underway before Julia Roberts named her daughter Hazel Patricia in November 2004, and again before John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars handed it to a new set of readers, which is part of why the rise has held rather than spiking and fading.
How Do I Pronounce Hazel?
Hazel is said HAY-zuhl, two syllables with the stress on the first.
There is very little room for error in English. The trickier part is spelling, since Hazelle, Hazell, and Haize all exist and a listener cannot hear the difference, so a Hazel using the standard spelling almost never has to correct anyone.
Is Hazel a Boy or Girl Name?
Hazel is a girls’ name in practice: boys account for 0.95 percent of everyone the Social Security Administration has on record with it, and 24 boys received it in 2025, which put it 4,306th for that year’s boys.
Boys named Hazel do exist, though, so it is not accurate to call the name exclusively female. The best known male Hazel is fictional: the calm, clever leader of the rabbits in Watership Down. If you name a daughter Hazel in 2026, everyone will read it as a girl’s name without a second thought.
Variations of Hazel
Because Hazel is an English word name rather than a saint’s name, it has fewer international forms than a biblical name would. The spellings that do circulate change the look more than the sound:
- Hazelle: a French-looking ending that softens the finish.
- Hazell: the doubled consonant version, also common as a surname.
- Haize: a modern phonetic respelling.
- Hasel: closer to the Germanic and Old English spelling of the word.
- Avellana: the Spanish word for hazelnut, occasionally borrowed by parents who want the meaning carried over.
Nicknames for Hazel
Hazel shortens easily, which is one reason it wears well from toddler to adult:
- Haze: cool, brief, and slightly edgy.
- Hazelnut: the affectionate baby version.
- Zelle / Zella: a vintage nickname that stands on its own.
- Zee: short and spunky.
- Azie: a rarer pull from the middle of the name.
- Hay-Hay: a playful option for the preschool years.
Names Similar to Hazel
If you like Hazel but want to keep looking, or you need a name that sits beside it in a sibling set, these share either its botanical sense or its turn-of-the-century feel:
- Willow: also a tree name, but softer and more modern in feel.
- Ivy: short, punchy, and botanical, with the same Victorian roots.
- Eleanor: the same vintage register without the nature link.
- Olive: another name that is a plant and a color at once, the closest structural match to Hazel.
- Iris: a flower name that reads grounded and serious rather than sweet.
- Luna: shares the natural-world feel with a celestial angle instead.
- Mabel: for the cozy, old-fashioned sound and the same soft ending.
- Alicia: a classic alternative with a more formal finish.
- Ashley: another tree-derived name, from the ash clearing.
Names That Moved With Hazel
Set Hazel against every other girls’ name of the last 45 years and a small group traces almost the same path: a long decline, a turn in the 1990s, then a steady climb. This is our own reading of public birth data rather than any official list, and it finds names of the same era and taste, not the same sound. The three closest are the ones drawn on the chart below.
- Eleanor: its share of births peaked in 1915, two years after Hazel’s, and it holds its best rank on record right now at 12th.
- Aurora: still on the way up, with its share of births peaking in 2025 and its best rank, 15th, set the same year.
- Willow: peaked in 2021, took its best rank of 37th in 2022, and sits 44th in 2025 on a rising trend.
- Sloane: rising, with a best rank of 140th in 2022 and 141st in 2025.
- Athena: rising, with a best rank of 76th in 2023 and 109th in 2025.
- Blakely: rising, with a best rank of 156th in 2021 and 191st in 2025.
Eleanor, Aurora, and Willow are the three plotted above. Sloane, Athena, and Blakely move with Hazel too but are not on the chart, so do not go hunting for their lines.
Middle Names for Hazel
Hazel is two syllables ending in a soft L, so it takes both a long formal middle name and a one-syllable one without sounding crowded.
Classic and Timeless
These anchor Hazel in the same era its first run belonged to.
Modern and Breezy
Pair Hazel with something current if you want the full name to sound of this decade.
Whimsical and Soft
Lean into the nature side with a second word from the same world.
- Hazel June
- Hazel Wren
- Hazel Faye
- Hazel Skye
- Hazel Rue
Sibling Names for Hazel
A sib-set around Hazel works best with names that are equally plain-spoken and equally old, so no sibling sounds like it arrived from a different decade.
For a Brother
Aim for a name that could belong to a 1920s gentleman or a present-day toddler with equal ease.
- Patrick: a sturdy classic that balances Hazel’s softness.
- August: shares the gentle vintage sound and the nature link.
- Silas: earthy and biblical, and it echoes Hazel’s S sound.
- James / Jamie: a timeless choice that fits any era.
- Arthur: another name in the middle of a vintage revival.
- Matthew: a safe, strong biblical option.
- Jackson: a more modern, surname-style pick.
For a Sister
Sister names should share the vintage register without matching Hazel’s H sound.
- Cora: short, vintage, and very sweet.
- Eleanor: the name whose popularity curve tracks Hazel’s most closely.
- Willow: doubles the tree theme, and it has been rising alongside Hazel.
- Jennifer: a retro pick with a different rhythm.
- Everly: a modern name that shares the L ending.
- Lucia: adds a lyrical, European note.
- Flora: stays in the botanical family.
- Clara: clean, crisp, and from the same era.
Famous People Named Hazel
The name has done well in laboratories and on stages:
- Hazel Bishop: an organic chemist who finished a chemistry degree at Barnard College in 1929, designed aircraft fuels during World War II, and in 1950 brought her long-wearing, no-smear lipstick to market under her own company, according to Britannica.
- Hazel Scott: a jazz and classical pianist and singer who became the first Black American woman to host her own television show when The Hazel Scott Show began in the summer of 1950, per the National Women’s History Museum.
- Hazel Court: an English actress known for her roles in horror films.
- Hazel Hayes: an Irish YouTuber and author.
- Hazel O’Connor: a British singer-songwriter and actress.
Hazel in Pop Culture
Fiction has kept the name in front of new parents for two straight generations:
- Hazel Grace Lancaster: the narrator of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, and the character who reintroduced the name to a generation of readers.
- Hazel: the loyal, level-headed leader of the rabbits in Watership Down, and a male character.
- Hazel Bellamy: a character in the television series Upstairs, Downstairs.
- Hazel Burkett: a character in Degrassi: The Next Generation.
