Humanverse

Hazel vs Hazle

American parents have registered 305,469 Hazels since 1880, against 2,485 Hazles. Hazel is still ahead, with 6,342 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Hazel against Hazle, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Hazel Hazle

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Hazel has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1927, when Hazel had 5,147 and Hazle had 85.

Side by side

  Hazel Hazle
Total US births 305,4692,485
Most in one year 7,68099
Babies in 2025 6,342under 5
Estimated living today 109,000320
Median age today 980
Peak year 19181924
Best rank 33rd girls761st girls
Rank in 2025 21stunranked
First recorded 18801887
Girls / boys 302,580 / 2,8892,442 / 43

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Hazles alive today are over 80; half the Hazels are over 9. That is 71 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Hazel and Hazle.