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The first name 
Zoe

Zoe is a first name typically given to girls, but in rare cases also used as a boys name.

The name Zoe is very popular!

The first name Zoe is one of the top 100 most popular girls names in the US – currently at #33 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Zoe, accounting for approximately 0.30 % of all newborn girls. In the entire USA, approximately 140,774 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Zoe. That is 0.04 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Zoe

What does the name 
Zoe mean?

The first name Zoe stands for ‘the living one’. The Greek word ‘zoḗ’ translated means ‘life’ or ‘alive’. There are several spellings for the name, but their meaning is the same.

Did you know… that there is an indigenous people in Brazil, with about 250 members, called Zo'é? They belong to the Tupí ethnic group. The Zo'é are considered indios isolados (isolated indigenous people)

Zoe shares her name with several famous namesakes

An actress

Zoe Saldaña (*1978)
Zoe Salda????s an American actress known for her roles in films such as "Star Trek" (2009 - 2016), "Guardians of the Galaxy" (since 2014), and "Avatar" (2009). Prior to her acting career, Salda????tudied ballet and performed in several dance companies. Known for her powerful and diverse performances, she has made a name for herself as one of Hollywood's most sought-after actresses, as evidenced by her numerous awards, including the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Teen Choice Award and the ALMA Award.

Another actress

Zoé Kravitz (*1988)
Zoé Kravitz is an American actress, singer, and model. She is the daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet, and has African-American, Puerto Rican, Czech, and Jewish roots. Kravitz began her career as an actress and is known for her roles in films such as 'Mad Max: Fury Road' (2015), 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' (2016), and the tv show 'Big Little Lies' (2017 - 2019). She is also a talented singer and musician and has released several albums with her band 'Lolawolf'.

An actress, director and producer

Zoe Lister-Jones (*1982)
Zoe Lister-Jones is an American actress, director, writer and producer. She is known for her roles in television shows such as 'Whitney' (2011 - 2013) and 'Life in Pieces' (2015 - 2019), and for her work as a director, screenwriter and producer on films such as 'Band Aid' (2017) and 'The Craft: Legacy' (2020). Lister-Jones is also a talented musician and has performed as a singer and guitarist in several bands in the past. In addition, she is a political activist and has championed social and political causes, including women's rights, LGBTQ rights and environmental issues.

Video game developer

Zoé Quinn (*1987)
Zoé Quinn is an American video game developer and activist. She is best known for her game 'Depression Quest' (2013), an interactive text adventure game that addresses depression and mental illness. She is also an author and has published a book titled 'Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate' (2017), in which she shares her experiences with cyberbullying and online harassment and offers suggestions for better ways to respond to online harassment.

A Byzantine empress

Zoé Porphyrogenita (978 - 1050)
She was a Byzantine empress of the 11th century. She was the daughter of Emperor Constantine VIII and reigned as empress with her husband Romanos III Argyros from 1028 to 1034. During her reign, Porphyrogenita was a powerful political figure and supported the church and the arts. She also founded the Monastery of Kecharitomene in Constantinople and funded many religious projects. After her death, Porphyrogenita was venerated as a saint and is a well-known figure in Byzantine history.

A stunt woman

Zoé Bell (*1978)
Zoé Bell is a well-known figure in the film industry and has won many fans for her impressive stunt performances. The New Zealander started her career as a stuntwoman in the early 1990s and has worked on many famous films and series such as 'Xena: Warrior Princess' (1998 - 2001), 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1' (2003) and 'Death Proof' (2007). She has worked as a stunt double for Lucy Lawless, Uma Thurman and Cate Blanchett, among others. In recent years, Bell has also worked as an actress, appearing in films and series such as 'Lost' (2008) and 'The Hateful Eight' (2015).

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Zoe, you might first think of a woman or a girl. But did you know that there are also places with the name Zoe? Are you also called Zoe? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

The first French...

nuclear reactor was called the Zoé reactor or EL-1. The name Zoé was an acronym of Zéro de puissance (zero power), Oxyde d'uranium (uranium oxide) and Eau lourde (heavy water).

A tiny moon

Zoe is the smaller component (moon) of the double asteroid system of the Kuiper Belt asteroid and Cubewano's (58534) Logos.

Zoe Tarn...

is a small lake on Heard Island in the southern Indian Ocean. The lake is named after the US brig Zoe from New London, Connecticut.

Zoe -
in the 2000s more popular than ever before

If we dig really deep into our statistics, we find that there are very few girls' names that have been consistently popular for so long that they have been given to newborns in every single year since the beginning of our records in 1880. In fact, there are only 432 girls' names that appear in our statistics in every single year, and Zoe is one of those very special classics. At the same time, Zoe has never been more popular than it is in this century - in 2010, the name even made it to rank #29 of the most popular girls' names, easily landing in the top 100 of our SmartGenius first name statistics.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Zoe was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Happy Birthday - 4,984 girls named Zoe celebrate their second birthday this year

...because: In 2022, 4,984 girls were born and given the name Zoe by their parents. That puts Zoe at #37 on our list of most popular girls' names. It was much less popular in 1978 - only 94 parents chose this name for their newborn daughter and it ranked 1,203 on the popularity scale of all girls' names.

Zoe -
well known in all states of the USA, most popular in Nevada

There are only 537 different women’s names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Zoe is one of them. However, Zoe is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Nevada seem to particularly fancy this name – the 1,167 women called Zoe who live here are 0,261% of all female residents and push their name up to #86, easily placing it in the top 100 most common female names in Nevada.

Zoe has 3 letters 
and begins with a Z

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter Z is quite rare as a first letter for girls' names: only 1.9% of all common girls' names in the US begin with Z. By the way, the most common first letters of girls' names are A, S and M, while U, X and Q are the least common initials of girls' names.

With only three letters, the name Zoe is obviously very short. In fact, only 1.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly three letters. Just 0.2% of all first names are even shorter and only have two letters, while nearly 99% of all boys’ and girls’ names use more than three letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that with 1.9% of all girls' names beginning with a Z, this initial letter is less common than the other letters on average. Nevertheless, there are girls' names with Z that are quite popular, the most common at present is Zoe.

Other names with 
Z, o and e

If you take all the letters in the name Zoe – Z, o and e – and put them together again, you can form another name, such as Zeo.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Zoe

If your name is Zoe and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Zoe

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Zoe, you can simply say:

Zebra

Orange

Elephant

This is how the name Zoe is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Zoe in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Zoe

Zoe

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Zoe

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Zoe is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

Z
O
E

Have you ever waved the name Zoe

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

Z
O
E

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Zoe sounds like this: