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. It became a popular name in English-speaking countries during the 19th century, along with other names of plants or trees used for girls.
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.
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. 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 and Canada, where it was the 38th most popular name given to newborn girls in 2021 and 2022.
Variations include Hazell, Hazelle, Hasel, and Heizle. Other names in use such as Hazelee, Hazeleigh, Hazelyn, and Hazelynn might be variants.
Contents
People
Hazel Adair (novelist) (real name H. I. Addis; 1900–1990), British novelist
Hazel Adair (screenwriter) (1920–2015), English actress and screenwriter
Hazel Ascot (born 1928), English child actress
Hazel Ong'ayo Ayanga (born 1952), Kenyan theologian
Hazel Bishop (1906–1998), American chemist and founder of a cosmetics company
Hazel Blears (born 1956), British politician
Hazel Brooks (1924–2002), American actress
Hazel Brown (1942–2022), Trinbagonian women's and consumer rights activist
Hazel Brugger (born 1993), American-Swiss author, comedian, artist, and television presenter
Hazel Byford (born 1941), British politician
Hazel Carby (born 1948), American academic
Hazel Carter (linguist) (1999–2019), British-American linguist
Hazel Carter (writer) (1894–1918), American farmer who disguised herself as a soldier
Hazel Chu (born 1980), Irish politician
Hazel Court (1926–2008), British actress
Hazel Crowney, British Bollywood actress
Hazel Dawn (1890–1988), American actress
Hazel de Berg (1913–1984), Australian oral historian and broadcaster
Hazel Dickens (1925–2011), American bluegrass singer
Hazel Douglas (1923–2016), English actress
Hazel Doupe (born 2001), Irish actress
Hazel Nell Dukes (1932–2025), American activist
Hazel Findlay (born 1989), British climber and mountaineer
Hazel Garland (1913–1988), American journalist, columnist and newspaper editor
Hazel Gaudet-Erskine (1908–1975), American social and communications scientist
Hazel Gaynor (born 1971), English-Irish author
Hazel Greene (born 1960), Irish archer, power lifter and fencer
Hazel Hunkins Hallinan (1890–1982), American women's rights activist and journalist
Hazel Hannell (1895–2002), American artist and activist
Hazel Hawke (1929–2013), Australian first wife of Bob Hawke
Hazel Hayes (born 1985), Irish YouTuber, filmmaker, and author
Hazel Henderson (1933–2022), American activist and writer
Hazel Homer-Wambeam, American beauty pageant winner
Hazel Hutchins, Canadian children's author
Hazel Irvine (born 1965), British television presenter
Hazel Brill Jackson (1894–1991), American sculptor
Hazel M. Johnson (1935–2011), American environmental activist
Hazel Keech (born 1987), British-Mauritian actress and model
Hazel Kyrk (1886–1957), American economist
Hazel Lavery (1890–1935), American painter
Hazel Ying Lee (1912–1944), American aviator
Hazel Mae (born 1970), Filipino-Canadian sportscaster
Hazel Massery (born 1942), American anti-integration activist
Hazel McCallion (1921–2023), Canadian politician
Hazel Guggenheim McKinley (1903–1995), American painter and art collector
Hazel Miner (1904–1920), American killed in a blizzard
Hazel Monteith (1917–2012), Afro-Jamaican advocate, radio personality and social worker
Hazel E. Munsell (1891–1989), American chemist and educator
Hazel Newlevant, American cartoonist and editor
Hazel O'Connor (born 1954), British singer-songwriter and actress
Hazel R. O'Leary (born 1937), American government official and university administrator
Hazel Perfect (1927–2015), British mathematician
Hazel Pete (1914–2003), Chehalis basket weaver
Hazel Poa (born 1970), Singaporean politician
Hazel Prior, English Celtic harpist and author
Hazel Jane Raines (1916–1956), American aviator
Hazel Redick-Smith (1926–1996), South African tennis player
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 Sewell (1898–1975), American animator
Hazel Shermet (1920–2016), American actress, comedian, and singer
Hazel Sive, South African biologist and educator
Hazel Brannon Smith (1914–1994), American journalist and publisher
Hazel Mountain Walker (1889–1980), one of the first African-American women to pass the Ohio bar
Hazel Wood Waterman (1865–1948), American architect
Hazel Hitson Weidman (1923–2024), American anthropologist
Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman (1886–1974), American tennis player
Hazel Wong, Hong Kong-born Emirati architect
Fictional characters
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