Grinders vs po’ boys vs hoagies
Soda vs pop vs coke
Regionalisms, those, I know- but how about hazelnut vs filbert?
I grew up calling them filberts, almost everyone I know now calls them hazelnuts.
Is it regional (western NY)…
Generational (I was a kid in late '60s and 70s)…
European- my parent were immigrants from Eastern Europe?
So, Dopers- what do you call them?
I grew up in New England in the 1980s. They were filberts to me. Actually, I was making a hazelnut cake last year and didn’t learn that they are the same thing until I read the back of a bag of hazelnuts.
SoCal native.
I called them filberts when I was growing up. This is because they were always in the ‘fancy nut mix’ and listed as such. I don’t think it was until the '80s when Frangelico came out that I heard them called hazelnuts. Now that seems to be the common term for them, and I never hear of ‘filberts’. (But then, I don’t buy the nut mixes much.)
These replies make me happy- I’m not nuts, er, crazy, after all.
We did call them filberts once upon a time, we did!
I learned that they were called “hazelnuts” if they grew wild, and they were called “filberts” if they came from cultivated trees.
But, in practice, I always called them “hazelnuts.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen the word “filbert” on a candy wrapper, ice cream menu, etc. I don’t know why.
I also grew up in western NY, but during the 80s and 90s, and know them as filberts too.
There’s a local candy store known for their chocolate covered nuts that calls them filberts. That’s the only place I’ve ever seen them sold under that name.
Filbert’s funny! What with Dogbert, Wally, and the Pointy Haired Boss, it’s still one of the funnier comic strips.
There was some distinction between the tree and the nut, but the Oregon hazelnut growers banded together to get the whole shebang called “hazelnut.” Since most US hazelnuts are now grown in the Northwest, the Oregon growers have some clout. . If you say “filbert” out here, you may be corrected.However, there’s still a Filbert Festival in Springfield, Oregon.
If you haven’t had Hazelnut Hill’s hazelnut brittle, you haven’t lived.
I grew up calling them herbies. This is because one of my older brothers misunderstood his parents when they told him the nuts they were eating were called filberts. He started calling them little herbies and it stuck. I did know they were filberts, officially, but I never heard of them being hazelnuts until I was fully adult, in fact until about fifteen or twenty years ago. I thought hazelnuts and filberts were completely different things.
They’re two different nuts?!? Some ignorance fought here…
I’ve heard the term Filberts, but always thought they were a different nut. I use the term ‘hazelnuts’
I’m with LUNA on the short bus. I had no idea until this thread that hazelnuts and filberts were the same things. :smack:
I have six hazelnut trees in my yard (lots of squirrels and birds too). Both names are used around here, w/ hazelnut probably getting the edge.
Hmm, I grewup in Oregon, as did both my parents, and they were always filberts in our house. 'Course I didn’t pay a huge amount of attention, I was (and am) deathly allergic to the little devil seeds.
Roddy
New name options!? 
Filberts are a specific variety of hazelnut (at least, they are in my books) - one with larger, more oblong nuts. Hazelnuts are smaller and round.
I learned the name “filbert” from Mother who hailed from Tennessee.
Aren’t fiberts and hazelnuts merely relatives and are not actually the same thing. Much like how sweet potatoes and yams are not really the same things. Wasabi is not really horseradish. etc.
Wikipedia has a rather informative article about the hazel family, including a breakdown of how the different members are grouped and identified.
Per Wikipedia:
The species of hazel are grouped as follows:
Nut surrounded by a soft, leafy involucre. Multi-stemmed, suckering shrubs to 12m tall.
Involucre short, about the same length as the nut.
Corylus americana* - American Hazel, from eastern North America
Corylus avellana* - Common Hazel, from Europe, north Africa and west Asia
Corylus heterophylla* - Asian Hazel, from Asia
Involucre long, twice the length of the nut or more, forming a ‘beak’.
Corylus cornuta *- Beaked Hazel, of North America
Corylus maxima *- Filbert, of southeastern Europe and southwest Asia
Corylus sieboldiana* - Asian Beaked Hazel, from northeastern Asia and Japan
** Nut surrounded by a stiff, spiny involucre. Single-stemmed trees. **
Involucre moderately spiny and also with glandular hairs. Large trees to 35m tall.
Corylus colurna* - Turkish Hazel, from southeastern Europe and Asia Minor
Corylus jacquemontii* - Jacquemont's Hazel, from the Himalaya
Corylus chinensis *- Chinese Hazel, from West China
Corylus ferox* - Himalayan Hazel, from the Himalaya.
Corylus tibetica *- Tibetan Hazel, from Tibet and southwest China.
Or, to answer the answer the OP’s actual question, I always have hear them called hazelnuts. I have to think for a second about what a filbert is.
How are they prepared?