Hazel is a primarily female given name meaning "hazel", from the name of the tree or the color. It is derived from the Old English hæsel.[1] It became a popular name in English-speaking countries during the 19th century, along with other names of plants or trees used for girls.[2]
 "Nutting" by Frederick Morgan. | |
| Gender | Primarily feminine |
|---|---|
| Origin | |
| Word/name | English |
| Meaning | "hazel" |
Until about 1865, Hazel was a rare name that was primarily in masculine use in the United States. A sympathetic character in the 1880 play Hazel Kirke by Steele MacKaye helped popularize it as a feminine name in the late 1800s. It later fell out of fashion but has increased in popularity due to the influence of the character Hazel Grace Lancaster in the 2012 novel The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and its 2014 film adaptation.[3]
The name was among the 25 most popular names for girls in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. It declined in usage in that country after the 1960s but rose again in usage after 1998. It has ranked among the top 50 names for newborn girls in the United States since 2017.[4] It also was occasionally used for boys in the United States between 1900 and 1940.
The name has also increased in popularity in recent years for girls in other English-speaking countries such as Ireland[5] and Canada, where it was the 38th most popular name given to newborn girls in 2021[6] and 2022.[7]
Variations include Hazell, Hazelle, Hasel and Heizle. Elaborations in use in the United States include Hazelgrace, Hazelmae, and Hazelmarie. Other names in use such as Hazelee, Hazeleigh, Hazelyn and Hazelynn might in some instances be variants.
People
edit- Hazel Blears (b. 1956), British politician and Labour MP for Salford
- Hazel Brown (1942–2022), Trinbagonian women's and consumer rights activist
- Hazel Byford (b. 1941), Conservative member of House of Lords, Britain
- Hazel Carby (b. 1948), professor of African American Studies and of American Studies
- Hazel Carter (1894–1918), American army stowaway and writer
- Hazel Court (1926–2008), British actress
- Hazel Crowney, British-born Bollywood (India) film actress
- Hazel Dickens (1925–2011), American bluegrass singer
- Hazel Findlay, British climber and mountaineer
- nickname of Hedley Hazelden (1915–2001), British test pilot and Second World War pilot
- Hazel Gaynor (b. 1971), English author in Ireland
- Hazel Hayes (b. 1985), Irish YouTuber, filmmaker, and author
- Hazel Hutchins, Canadian children's author
- Hazel Irvine (b. 1965), British television presenter
- Hazel Keech, British-Mauritian film actress
- Hazel Bryan Massery, protesting American student caught in a legendary 1957 photograph during the integration crisis
- Hazel McCallion (1921–2023), mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- Hazel Miner (1904–1920), who died saving her siblings during a spring blizzard in Center, Oliver County, North Dakota
- Hazel O'Connor, British singer-songwriter and actress
- Hazel R. O'Leary, former United States Secretary of Energy
- Hazel Perfect (d. 2015), British mathematician
- Hazel Poa (b. 1970), Singaporean politician
- Hazel Salmi (1893–1986), American visual artist, arts administrator
- Hazel Scott (1920–1981), American jazz and classical pianist and singer
- Hazel Schmoll (1890–1990), American botanist
- Hazel Mountain Walker (1889–1980), among the first African-American women to pass the Ohio bar
- Hazel Wood Waterman (1865–1948), American architect
- Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman (1886–1974), American tennis player
- Hazel Wong, UAE-Hong Kong architect
Fictional characters
edit- Hazel, a character from Pikwik Pack
- Hazel Aden, in the Canadian television drama Degrassi: The Next Generation
- Hazel Bellamy, in Upstairs, Downstairs
- Hazel (Burke), maid to the Baxter family in the comic strip Hazel and the television sitcom based on it
- Hazel Charming, in the animated preschool series Little Charmers
- Hazel Flagg, protagonist in the film Nothing Sacred
- Hazel Frost, mother of Emma Frost, a character in Marvel's X-Men comics
- Hazel Grace Lancaster, in John Green's novel The Fault in Our Stars
- Hazel Motes, in Flannery O'Connor's novel Wise Blood
- Hazel Levesque, a daughter of Pluto and one of the seven in Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus
- Captain Hazel Murphy, character on Sealab 2021
- Hazel Shade, daughter of the poet John Shade in the novel Pale Fire
- Hazel Stone (Heinlein), created by Robert A. Heinlein
- Hazel Woolley, a character in the radio soap opera The Archers
- Hazel, rabbit leader in the Richard Adams novel Watership Down
- Hazel, in Kazuya Minekura's manga series Gensoumaden Saiyuki
- Hazel, the narrator of Brian Vaughan's comic book Saga and the first hybrid child to survive infancy
- Hazel, a minor antagonist of the television series (Hazel was a man who came from a time when Hazel was more commonly used as the first name of a male) The Umbrella Academy
- Hazel Rainart, an antagonist from the anime webseries RWBY
- Hazel Wells, main protagonist of the Nickelodeon animated series The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish
Notes
edit- ^ Behind the Name
- ^ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). Oxford Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. p. 120. ISBN 0-19-861060-2.
- ^ Evans, Cleveland Kent (10 June 2014). "Hazel's Revival Not So Nutty". omaha.com. Omaha World Herald. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
- ^ "Popular Baby Names".
- ^ Behind the Name
- ^ "First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators". www150.statcan.gc.ca. Statistics Canada. 9 May 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
- ^ "Table 17-10-0147-01 First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators (Number)". Statistics Canada. Retrieved 2024-08-25.
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