Zoey

Meaning and origin

Zoey means “life.” It is a modern English spelling of Zoe, a name taken directly from the Greek word for life. The final y makes the familiar two-syllable pronunciation especially clear to English readers while preserving the older name’s meaning.

Zoe has a much longer history than Zoey’s contemporary appearance might suggest. Hellenized Jewish communities used it as a Greek translation of Eve, another name associated with life. Early Christian saints helped establish Zoe in Christian naming traditions, and it became familiar in the Byzantine Empire. An eleventh-century Byzantine empress also bore the name. English use of Zoe developed in the nineteenth century; Zoey belongs to a later stage of the same name’s history.

Pronunciation and related names

Zoey is pronounced ZOH-ee, with the stress on the first syllable. Zoe, Zoë, Zoie, and Zowie are related English spellings. The diaeresis in Zoë indicates that the vowels are pronounced separately, giving the same two-syllable rhythm that Zoey conveys with its ending.

The name also has an international family. Zoé is a French form, Zoi is used in Greek, and Zoya and Zoja belong to other language traditions. These forms connect Zoey with a name that has traveled well beyond English, even though their pronunciation and spelling follow different local patterns.

Zoey on screen

Actor Zoey Deutch is one contemporary bearer of the spelling. She stars alongside Glen Powell in the 2018 romantic comedy Set It Up. The story follows two overworked assistants who try to gain some time away from the office by arranging a romance between their demanding bosses. Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs play the bosses, giving the film two intertwined pairs at the center of its matchmaking plot.

The spelling also appears in Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Jane Levy plays Zoey Clarke, a computer coder living in San Francisco who unexpectedly begins hearing other people’s innermost feelings through songs. What first seems bewildering becomes a way for her to understand people around her. The character gives the name a musical television connection alongside Deutch’s film work.

Popularity in the United States

Zoey became especially prominent among American girls in the early twenty-first century. Its strongest year in the Social Security Administration records was 2012, when 7,482 girls received the name and it ranked number 20.

It remained high on the list at number 23 in 2015 and number 32 in 2020, before reaching number 69 in 2025. These figures describe Zoey specifically. Zoe and the other spellings have their own entries, so Zoey’s ranking reflects the popularity of this particular way of writing the name.

How popular is Zoey?

In 2025, Zoey ranked #69 among girls in the United States, with 3,427 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1967; its largest annual count was 7,482 in 2012. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.