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Zooey

#13,195 in 2025Girls' name

Life, through Zoë

Zooey has been given to 1,106 babies in the U.S. since 2003. In 2025 it ranked #13,195 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2012, with 194 recorded.

Babies named Zooey, 2025

1 in 474,000

Zooey over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Zooey: meaning, origin, and history

Life, through Zoë

Ancient Greek

What Zooey means

Zooey belongs to the name family reached through Zooey → Zoë. Its meaning is “life”.

Origin, language, and formation

Zooey is used in English. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Zoë.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Zooey is pronounced /ˈzoʊ.i/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,106 girls were recorded with the name Zooey between 2003 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 194 in 2012; its best national rank was #1,250 in 2012.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,661 in 2020 to #13,195 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,350 in 2015 to #13,195 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Zooey?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 230,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#13,195
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
328,272 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Zooey sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 328,272 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Zooey. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Zooeys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Zooey was born before 2013 — so the typical Zooey is around 12 today.

Median birth year
2013
About 12 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
82.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,106
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 82.0% of all recorded uses (907).

Is Zooey rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+2,084
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−7,534
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−10,845
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.09×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
3.6%
Peak was 2012 (194)
Years since peak
13
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
43.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,250
2012

Spellings of Zooey

Zooey is not the most common spelling — Zoe is, with 49.6% against Zooey's 0.34%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Zooey is used

Across 1910–2025, Zooey was most concentrated in Arizona — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 217,363 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Arizona1 in 100,000
  2. 2California1 in 100,000
  3. 3Florida1 in 100,000
  4. 4Texas1 in 100,000
  5. 5Washington1 in 100,000
  6. 6Colorado1 in —
  7. 7Georgia1 in —
  8. 8Illinois1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Zooey has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Zooey around the world

Where Zooey ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • Canada
    2011–2015
    #2,823
    in 2015
  • South Australia
    2013–2013
    #818
    in 2013

Popularity data from Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Zooey by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#13,195
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 7,534
Best rank ever
#1,250
2012
Peak year
2012
194 that year
First recorded
2003
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,106
Count in 2025
7

Names similar to Zooey

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KloeyCloeyChloeyKhloeyXoeyJoeyZhoeyArzoeyLoeyZoeyKoeyRoeyNoeyBoeyCoey

Sibling names for Zooey

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Zooey

Top names of 2012, Zooey's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2012Girls' names starting with Z