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I don't find it unusual. I've met many Hazel's and I even went to school with two or three Hazel's or possibly more I didn't know. My sister had a Hazel in her class and I did too. The Hazel in my sister's clas had an older sister in my class, I went to a K-12 school of around 600 students. I met one Hazel in college and I've met some just around. Nature names are very popular in the Pacific Northwest so we may have more Hazel's than usual or maybe I'm just lucky and have known a lot of them.

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I always thought it was a little too tree themed but the Hazel in my class in high school her last name was Pine.

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This message was edited 12/18/2012, 1:21 PM

I find that puzzling. There must be gazillions of references to the nut, before you even start on the Old Witch, witch-hazel lotion, and the (male) (rabbit) hero of Watership Down. The surname Hazell might confuse some people, I suppose. As for popularity, it was really popular in about 1900, and then it faded until between 1970 and 2000 it had just about vanished. Now it's being used again, but you couldn't call it popular yet. If it does become popular, as many other plant names are, then you'll be ahead of the trend and people will consistently assume that you are younger than your actual age!

For the average person, it is probably seen as unusual. For the namenerd, no. I have only met one Hazel before, so I'd say it's uncommon at least. And people may not spell it correctly because really how often do we need to spell the word hazel?

I would just say those people can't spell. Or aren't familiar with Hazel as a name, as it might be unusual in their generation. Might be uncommon on people in your age group but on the whole it's not an unusual name. I can definitely see Hazel having a comeback in the next few years - I get a hipster vibe from her.

It's not very popular, but I wouldn't say it's unusual. I would think people should know how to spell it.

Depends where you are. Hazel was in the top 100 names in England & Wales for 30 years (1920s-50s), so I should imagine that there are quite a lot of them here. Even last year 131 babies were called Hazel, which puts it in the top 400 names - not super popular, but I wouldn't call it really unusual.

Not at all. There was a Hazel in my class at school - a very pretty girl and I've always loved the name ever since. I met a toddler Hazel recently - gorgeous.

Around here it's unusual for anybody under the age of, say, seventy. I know of one girl about 10 who's middle name is Hazel, after her grandmother. But she goes by her first name which is Alexis.

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It should not be that hard a name to spell.