Hazel: a tree name with a warm color association
Hazel comes from the English word for the tree and the light brown color, ultimately from Old English hæsel. It became a given name in the nineteenth century and has enjoyed two strong periods of American popularity. Pronounced HAY-zul, it places an immediately recognizable woodland word in a compact two-syllable name.
The tree behind the name
Common hazel, Corylus avellana, grows in woodland, scrub, and hedgerows. Its soft leaves turn yellow in autumn, and its hanging yellow catkins appear before the new leaves. Small red female flowers are less conspicuous, later developing into the nuts enclosed in leafy husks.
The tree has a long practical history. Its flexible stems have been managed through coppicing, a method that encourages new growth after cutting. Its nuts feed people and wildlife, including squirrels and hazel dormice. These details give the nature name a specific setting of hedgerows, winter catkins, and autumn nuts.
Hazel also names a light brown color. The color association and the tree belong to the same English word-name story, giving the personal name both a botanical image and a familiar descriptive use.
Hazel in Watership Down
Richard Adams used Hazel for a central rabbit in Watership Down. Hazel’s brother Fiver senses that something terrible is going to happen to their warren. Trusting that warning, the brothers help persuade other rabbits to leave and search for a safer home.
Their journey leads toward Watership Down, but reaching it brings further challenges. The name consequently belongs to a character involved in a story of movement, danger, and the effort to establish a new community. It is a memorable masculine literary use of a name now most often given to girls in the United States.
Adams began telling the story to his two daughters, who encouraged him to publish it. The resulting novel reached both children and adults and won the Carnegie Medal in 1972, helping make Hazel and Fiver familiar names to generations of readers.
A nineteenth-century name with a return to favor
Hazel entered personal naming during the nineteenth century and quickly became popular. Its American history includes a strong late-Victorian and early twentieth-century period, a later decline, and a substantial revival. That pattern gives it both a familiarity across generations and a place among contemporary nature choices.
The pronunciation stresses the first syllable, which rhymes with day. The z supplies the name’s central consonant sound, and Haze is an established short form that keeps its opening intact.
Hazel in American records
Hazel’s best U.S. girl-name rank was 18 in 1897. Its largest annual number of births came in 1918, when 7,615 girls received the name.
The modern revival took it to number 63 in 2015, 31 in 2020, and 21 in 2025. Its recent position is therefore close to the chart level it reached more than a century earlier.
Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution
Meaning and history draw on the references below. American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling; counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.
How popular is Hazel?
In 2025, Hazel ranked #21 among girls in the United States, with 6,318 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 7,615 in 1918. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.