Hazelnuts; Image via Wikipedia
She’s a granny-chic starbaby choice, with an appealing literary link, too.
Our Baby Name of the Day is Hazel.
Hazel has been hot before. She broke into the Top 100 back in 1886, entered the Top 25 in 1893 and stayed there until 1912. In fact, it didn’t leave the Top 100 until 1936. Hazel was the Danielle of her day.
By the 50s, however, Hazel was on her way out, and by 1975, she’d fallen out of the Top 1000 entirely. Her demise was likely hastened by popular comic strip Hazel, the tale of a bumbling housekeeper in the Baxter household. It ran from the 1940s into the 1990s, and was adapted as a sitcom starring Shirley Booth for five seasons in the 1960s.
Nature names for girls come and go, but they’re always present. Twenty years ago, it was Amber and Jasmine. The 1960s were a low point for botanicals, but Dawn was rising. Today, Lily is unstoppable. She ranked #18 in 2009, with Lillian just a few spots behind, and plenty of other Lily-variants on the list.
Hazel fits in this category, but she has other appealing characteristics, too:
- You can find her on the map. There are more than a dozen Hazels in the US, often paired with Green, Park or Run;
- Speaking of Green, it’s a color name, too, though not as showy as Scarlet or Indigo;
- She fits with a host of simple, understated, nickname-proof names like Hannah and Rachel;
- Speaking of Rachel, that -el ending has helped refresh many a name. Add in her zippy z and her vibrant “ay” and Hazel sounds current.
Little wonder then, that Hazel is back. After years of obscurity, she re-entered the Top 1000 in 1998. By 2006, had climbed to an impressive 465, and in 2009 reached #294.
She was climbing before Julia Roberts welcomed her twins in 2004. Both names were trend-setting: son Phinneas Walter, called Finn, and daughter Hazel Patricia.
Still, Roberts didn’t invent the name. It isn’t quite like using Suri or Apple. She merely picked a name that was on the rise and made it even more visible.
As for the literary link? Hazelnuts have been on the menu for thousands and thousands of years. Our word hazel is traced to the Old English haesel. And it has been an eye-color since the late sixteenth century, if not before. William Shakespeare didn’t give any of his characters the name, but he did have Mercutio tell Benvolio that “thou hast hassel eyes.”
There’s also:
- A boy bunny, Chief Rabbit in 1972′s Watership Down;
- Hazel Miner, a 16 year-old girl who saved the lives of her siblings in a 1920 North Dakota snow storm. She lost her own life in the blizzard, but her legacy endures in artwork and a folk song;
- There’s a Bob Dylan song by the name;
- Since the 1990s, indie band Sister Hazel has recorded a string of quietly successful singles. Many of them have appeared on movie soundtracks. The band’s name comes from a long-time social services establishment in their native Gainesville, Sister Hazel’s Mission;
- In The Hunger Games, one of the characters is the resourceful Hazelle.
Quirky, but not over-the-top and retro, but not in a risky way – no wonder Hazel is catching on.
Note: This post was originally published on May 8, 2008, and substantially revised on April 26, 2011.
I’ve thought Hazel was kitschy and ripe for a comeback way before Pretty Woman’s daughter. Goes right along with names like Clara, Nora, and Violet. Not so long ago, Sophie was seen as hopelessly dated and “old-lady.”
I think Hazel, Nora, Agatha, and Edna are going to come back. I think the elementary school kids of today will name their kids Agatha and Edna and Hazel. They’re really cute.
I’m going to be the one looking at one of my daughter’s after they’ve named a child saying, “Edna. Really, out of all the family names, you chose Edna?” I loved my grandmother dearly, but her name will always feel “old” to me. We did contemplate using an anagram of Edna for one of our daughters (Neda, Dena, Aden).
We’d looked at Mabel, Hazel and Zelda before deciding to pare our soon-to-be-born daughter’s name to “Zel”. It’s reminiscent of the older names which contain that syllable, but can stand on it’s own and sounds contemporary.
I wish, however, that we’d known how many Zellas, Bellas, Gisellas, Ellas and even Vellas we were going to meet in the months following her birth.
Zel – interesting! It does have a throwback feel.
Me, I’m a huge fan of Zelda and would use it in a heartbeat, but my husband just thinks video game whenever I suggest it.
There are a ton of rhyming names out there – “el” seems to be ascendant in feminine names right now. Betcha we’ll be meeting some Nells, too, especially post-Helena Bonham Carter’s choice.
Still, any name with a Z at the top stands out!
We are going with Hazel Rose for our daughter due in January… I think! Her big sister’s name is Stella June. I do like Agatha though…
Stella and Hazel – what a great pair! Agatha is great, though …
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Wow, what a Shakespeare ref.! … This also always reminds me of the song by Kelly Clarkson “Behind these Hazel Eyes”. The only Hazels I have ever know have actually had hazel eyes, so it would be interesting to see a person with different colored eyes named Hazel
Hazel’s pretty but she’s not my sort. Not clunky enough (like Zelda & Maud) and not flowy enough (Clementine & Penelope) to grab me.
I fully expect to find a Hazel in one of Josie’s classes sometime before H.S. Hazel’s got sass & spirit and that’s enough to classify her as unconventionally pretty. :thumbsup: Hazel!
I like Hazel. The only one I’ve met is an elderly lady who is the oldest member of our church – so it does have an ‘old lady vibe’ to me, which I do like.
Already having a Henry and not wanting to duplicate initials, it didn’t make our list – but I do like the sound and the vibe. Strangely enough I’ve never associated it with hazelnuts – but that makes me think of tasty Nutella, so that’s good too!
Hazel is already back in NZ along with Ivy and Violet. Olive too.
After dismissing it for years as a dual crusty old lady/hippy name, I considered it for Ottilie along with other -el names. It’s got more moxie than Mabel and I love that it’s back in vogue again.
I’m already in naming Hades for using excessively long names, so using Hazel with two naturey names in the one combo was beyond the freaking pale.
Ivy & Violet — my older daughter and niece! Love Hazel, my gram was one of the 20s Danielle Hazels.
And my younger daughter has a friend named Olive. So there ya go.
Hah! I used Ivy, I wanted Violet AND Olive too. Great names.
I know of sisters named Ivy and Hazel. They’re very matched, but not unpleasantly so.
This was my grandmother’s name (she had blue eyes, btw). She was born in 1907 so right on-trend for her day. When I was a kid in the ’70s it seemed hopelessly dated, but now I really like it.
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