What's In A Name: Hazel, Travis

Hazel-This female name, which came into popular use in the second half of the 1800s, is from the tree name, see "Word History," below.

Travis-This male name (also a family name) is an occupational name from a toll collector at bridges, along roads or at town gates (cities and towns were usually surrounded by a wall in former times). It comes from Old French "traverser," taken to England by the Normans, which meant, "to pass through, over or across," and also used in reference to "passing through the gate of a town or over a toll bridge." Landowners along waterways used toll bridges to extract money from those wanting to cross. Likewise, similar was done in parts of waterways themselves, often in narrow parts, to extract money from boaters needing passage. As a family name another form is "Travers."

 I consulted the following for this article: "A World of Baby Names," by Teresa Norman, published by Perigee/Penguin Group, New York, 2003

WORD HISTORY:
Hazel-This word goes back to Indo European "khoseloz," meaning, "hazel (tree)." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "hasalaz," with the same meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "hæsel," also with the same meaning. This then became "hasel," before the modern form. The meaning, "a shade of brown (usually for eye color)," came from Shakespeare's use of that meaning in "Romeo and Juliet," from the color of a ripened hazelnut. Forms in other Germanic languages: German has "Hasel," Low German Saxon has "Hassel" (both German and Low German capitalize nouns), Dutch has "hazelaar," West Frisian has "hazze(nutebeam)" (literally, "hazelnut tree"), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have "hassel," Icelandic "hasl/hesl" (?).