Favorite Name – When Hazel was a Man’s Name

I currently have four people in my genealogy database named Hazel Loveless. Three are men, all born before 1820, and one is a woman, born in 1914.

I wonder about the popularity of the name in the 1700s. I decided to search the 1800 U.S. census on just the first name of Hazel. I got sixteen hits, with half having spelling variations. My ancestor’s brother, Hazel Loveless, b. about 1770, turned up in Newberry District, South Carolina.  Others were found in New York, Vermont, Maryland, Connecticut, North Carolina, and New Hampshire. I thought it was a southern thing to name boys Hazel.

Census Year

No. with Hazel as First Name

1810

26

1820

33

1830

66* [1]

1840

84*

My Hazels
Hazel Loveless was born about 1770. He was an older brother of my maternal 4x-great-grandfather, James Loveless, who was born about 1771. Both may have been born in North Carolina or South Carolina, but I found them living as adults in Newberry, South Carolina. I have no known wife for Hazel, but I have perhaps eleven children. The youngest son born in 1818 was named Hazel.

This Hazel Loveless married Almira Davis about 1846. She had been married to Hazel’s older brother, Joseph, first, but after his death in 1846, she married Hazel. I have not researched this family and only have sketchy (unproven) information.

My James Loveless also named a son Hazel, perhaps after his brother. Hazel was born in 1802 in South Carolina and married Linney Riley in 1824. They had at least six children, none named Hazel. Hazel and Linna moved to Bartow County, Georgia and he died in 1870 and she died after the 1880 census.

The last Hazel Loveless was the daughter of Zachariah T Loveless and Clara E Woodruff. By now, Hazel had become more of a girls’ name. Except, on searching the 1940 census for Hazel as the first name, I found a few dozen that were male, so perhaps it still ranked as a boy’s name.

In looking up the meaning of the name in the Oxford Dictionary of First Names by Patricia Hanks and Flavia Hodges, Hazel was listed as a name for girls. Its meaning is from Old English denoting the hazel tree. It can also denote eye color. Perhaps they hoped he grow tall and strong as a hazelnut tree.

This is my fourth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

[1] * (many spelling variations that might not be Hazel)

Copyright © 2021 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

Comments

  1. Barb LaFaraAugust 17, 2021 at 7:00 AM

    I've never heard Hazel as a boys name. I wrote about name popularity for the Namesake prompt this year and found a website that tracks popularity. They only go back to 1880, but you may find it interesting. Here is the link to Hazel for boys: http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Hazel Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa S. GorrellAugust 17, 2021 at 8:57 AM

      Thanks for the comment and the link. That's very interesting.

      Delete

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