Hazel · Daily fortune

Hazel is a feminine English name taken directly from the English word for the hazel tree and for the light brown colour, which Behind the Name traces "ultimately" to Old English hæsel. It was coined as a given name in the 19th century; Wikipedia notes it was rare and mostly masculine in the United States until about 1865, and that a sympathetic character in Steele MacKaye's 1880 play Hazel Kirke helped establish it as a girl's name. Behind the Name records it reaching 18th place for US girls by 1897 before falling out of fashion in the second half of the 20th century and recovering since. In 2025 it ranked #21 for girls in the United States.

Behind the Name gives Hazel as coming "from the English word hazel for the tree or the light brown colour, derived ultimately from Old English hæsel". Wikipedia agrees, deriving the name "from the name of the tree or the color" and likewise from Old English hæsel. There is no competing etymology: Hazel is a word-name, and its meaning is simply the plant and the colour named after its nuts.

Hazel is a 19th-century coinage. Behind the Name says it "was coined as a given name in the 19th century and quickly became popular, reaching the 18th place for girls in the United States by 1897". Wikipedia fills in the early picture: until around 1865 the name was rare and primarily masculine in the United States, and a sympathetic character in the 1880 play Hazel Kirke by Steele MacKaye helped popularize it as a feminine name in the late 1800s, after which it was among the 25 most popular names for US girls at the turn of the 20th century. Both sources describe a mid-century fall, Behind the Name placing it in the second half of the 20th century and Wikipedia after the 1960s, and both describe a recovery: Wikipedia dates the rise from 1998, credits renewed popularity to the character Hazel Grace Lancaster in John Green's 2012 novel The Fault in Our Stars, and notes the name has been in the US top 50 for girls since 2017.

Hazel ranked #21 for girls in the United States in 2025 (Social Security Administration). Behind the Name notes an earlier peak, 18th place for US girls in 1897, followed by a fall in the second half of the 20th century and a recovery since. Wikipedia adds that the name has ranked among the top 50 for newborn girls in the United States since 2017 and was the 38th most popular name for newborn girls in Canada in both 2021 and 2022.

English Hazel is /ˈheɪ.zəl/, HAY-zəl, two syllables with the stress on the first. Behind the Name lists no forms in other languages, as is usual for an English word-name; where it is used elsewhere it keeps the English spelling, and no foreign pronunciations were verified in this pass.

Hazel belongs to the group of great-grandmother names that have come all the way back around: it sounds Victorian and homespun, but the tree and colour behind it give it the freshness of a modern nature name. The soft z in the middle keeps it from feeling stiff. It pairs naturally with other revived botanical and vintage choices, and parents who like it tend to weigh it against Violet, Ivy, Iris, Mabel and Eloise, names with the same mix of old photographs and garden.

Hazel's namesakes cluster in the early-20th-century generation that carried the name at its first peak, plus a few fictional characters who shaped its fortunes. All are named in the Wikipedia article consulted for this profile.

Names that share Hazel's vintage-nature style, its English word-name origin, or its sound.