Zoey Name Meaning

With all the spunk of Chloe and the cool factor of Z, it’s no wonder that parents are loving Zoey. A variant of the Greek Zoe, Zoey means “life” or “alive.”

Despite her surge in popularity, the Zoey variation of the name is quite the modern newcomer, first appearing on the U.S. Top 1000 charts in 1995. Even then she didn’t crack the top 100 until 2008! This relative new popularity makes her undeniably modern regardless of her sporadic use in early history, being the name of two saints and an ancient empress. Zoey is relatively free of deep historical ties thanks to her light usage, allowing your little one to blaze a new path and leave her mark on the world.

Zoey is on-trend with the -y endings seen in Lily, Riley, and Avery, but also in a league of her own thanks to her use of Z. Historically the letter isn’t commonly used in females, adding some mystery and intrigue to the name that’ll set her apart from the crowd. Little Zoey is full of life, much like her meaning, vibrantly conquering each day like a warrior.

Spelling variations of the name are endless with Zoe, Zoie, and Zowie all floating about. Some other zesty Z names for girls are Zelda, Zara, and Zeva.

Infographic of Zoey name meaning, which is Zoey is a variant of the Greek Zoe, meaning life.
Ask your friends & family about Zoey…

Zoey Name Popularity

How popular is the name Zoey? Here’s everything we know.

Year Rank # Births % Births
1910 0 0%
1911 0 0%
1912 0 0%
1913 0 0%
1914 0 0%
1915 0 0%
1916 0 0%
1917 0 0%
1918 0 0%
1919 0 0%
1920 0 0%
1921 0 0%
1922 0 0%
1923 0 0%
1924 0 0%
1925 0 0%
1926 0 0%
1927 0 0%
1928 0 0%
1929 0 0%
1930 0 0%
1931 0 0%
1932 0 0%
1933 0 0%
1934 0 0%
1935 0 0%
1936 0 0%
1937 0 0%
1938 0 0%
1939 0 0%
1940 0 0%
1941 0 0%
1942 0 0%
1943 0 0%
1944 0 0%
1945 0 0%
1946 0 0%
1947 0 0%
1948 0 0%
1949 0 0%
1950 0 0%
1951 0 0%
1952 0 0%
1953 0 0%
1954 0 0%
1955 0 0%
1956 0 0%
1957 0 0%
1958 0 0%
1959 0 0%
1960 0 0%
1961 0 0%
1962 0 0%
1963 0 0%
1964 0 0%
1965 0 0%
1966 0 0%
1967 0 0%
1968 0 0%
1969 0 0%
1970 0 0%
1971 0 0%
1972 0 0%
1973 0 0%
1974 0 0%
1975 0 0%
1976 2,687 5 0.0004%
1977 0 0%
1978 0 0%
1979 0 0%
1980 0 0%
1981 0 0%
1982 0 0%
1983 0 0%
1984 0 0%
1985 0 0%
1986 0 0%
1987 0 0%
1988 3,236 6 0.0004%
1989 0 0%
1990 3,058 8 0.0005%
1991 1,531 53 0.0033%
1992 1,231 94 0.0059%
1993 1,205 93 0.006%
1994 1,423 65 0.0042%
1995 915 157 0.0104%
1996 674 282 0.0188%
1997 572 362 0.0245%
1998 530 436 0.0291%
1999 475 508 0.0339%
2000 408 663 0.0434%
2001 353 812 0.0539%
2002 268 1,158 0.0773%
2003 221 1,455 0.0956%
2004 207 1,610 0.1056%
2005 152 2,266 0.1482%
2006 118 2,845 0.1817%
2007 112 3,029 0.192%
2008 98 3,439 0.2225%
2009 75 3,993 0.2672%
2010 47 5,207 0.3613%
2011 28 6,399 0.4491%
2012 20 7,466 0.5239%
2013 24 7,238 0.5084%
2014 22 7,401 0.508%
2015 23 6,941 0.477%
2016 26 6,438 0.4465%
2017 29 6,026 0.4318%
2018 29 5,891 0.4288%
2019 31 5,640 0.4166%
2020 32 5,227 0.4107%
2021 37 4,860 0.3976%
2022 45 4,488 0.3402%

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Data via SSA.gov.


Names Like Zoey

If you like Zoey, you’ll love these other names like Zoey.


What names are variants of Zoey?

Mix it up with these names that are a variation of the name Zoey.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Zoe

Life

Greek

Zoee

Life

Greek

Zoie

Life

Greek

Zooey

Life

Greek


What names sound like Zoey?

If you like how Zoey sounds, you might also like these names that sound like Zoey.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Chloe

Green sprout

Greek

Joey

Jehovah increases

Hebrew

Josey

Jehovah increases

Hebrew

Josie

God will increase

English

Josy

Jehovah increases

Hebrew

Zola

Lump of earth

Italian

Zora

Dawn

Slavic


What names are similar to Zoey?

Find a name that’s like Zoey, but just a little bit different.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Ava

To live

Latin

Avery

Elf counsel

English

Harper

Harp Player

English

Kaya

Restful place, yew tree, forgiveness; home; stone; willow, wise child; the one with the beautiful body, profile

Turkish

Penelope

Weaver

Greek

Quinn

Descendent of Conn

Irish

Riley

Rye clearing

Irish

Una

One

Latin

Zara

Blooming flower

English

Zinnia

An allusion to the flower of the same name, so designated in honor of J.

Latin


Lists With Zoey

Find inspiration in these baby girl name lists featuring the name Zoey.


Siblings of Zoey

Mamas with kids named Zoey also have kids with these names.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Jeremiah

God will exalt

Hebrew

Kade

From the wetlands

Scottish

Alice

Of nobility

German

Damien

To tame

French

Nolyn

Champion

Irish

Dajohn

American

Dajuan

American

Sterling

Genuine, of high quality

English

33 Comments

  1. Liked the meaning and wasn’t super common or uncomfortable non. Sounds sweet and feminine

  2. Wanted a strong name that was also gentle and sweet. My husband and I kept going back to this.

  3. My name is Zoey and I love that it is so beautiful and perfect for me

  4. My husband loved the name and I grew to love it… Especially when we matched it with my mom’s middle name Jane. It is also means life such is another reason we chose it.

  5. I chose the name Zoey because in Greek the meaning of Zoey means life. Before I had my baby girl my mother passed away and I felt there was no meaning to the world, but she made herself known and helped me come out of a depression I’ve been in for sometime.

  6. Zoe (actually pronounced zoh-ay) means “life” in Greek. In the Bible, when Jesus uses this word, it’s often in reference to eternal life. We know eternity has been placed on our baby girls heart already but what a good reminder to her and us that we are not just living for this Earth here and now but that our final eternal home is with Jesus in heaven!

    • Zoey is a good name for a little baby girl I was named Zoey thanks for the comment and thank you for all the nice things that you all put on this list I really love it thank you I really hope you get to understand my reading and this is not a real fake name this is actually a real name I can’t expose my number of stuff but I just get my email please don’t tell anyone if you are watching this don’t tell anyone who knows how to hack or something

  7. I like the name Zoey. It’s such a pretty name.

  8. Zoey means life and her middle name is Wilder, which means wild and free. It is my prayer that she lives her life wild and free of limitations. She is perfect and was born unmedicated at home! No sonograms, so no one on the planet knew if she was a born or girl, but my husband and I sensed she was a girl. Falling in love with her!

  9. I always loved the name Zoey but had chosen Gia for my 1st girl. When we decided to have a 3rd baby we ended up having 2 miscarriages back to back. We ended up pregnant with a girl and I knew I wanted to name her Zoey and when I looked up the meaning life it was so fitting! Fast forward to today and the name also fits her to a T! She is spunky and absolutely full of zest and life! The name fits her perfectly! We have many nicknames for her as well… Zozo, Zocowski, Zoski, Zo, and I call her Joey sometimes because I have kids and her sister is Gia so I get tongue tied ?

  10. I named my baby girl Zoey because it means Life. I had a very difficult pregnancy. It was a high risk pregnancy from the very beginning. To make a long story short I was pregnant with two babies but lost one of them. So I decided to name her Zoey because it means Life and Life is so precious.

  11. thanks for the thoughts about my name

  12. Wanted a sweet Z name

  13. Her original due date was July 23, 2019 which is also my sobriety date. At the time is was coming up on my 6 years clean & had a lot of turmoil in my relationship with my husband & life period, Zoey means “life” she became my “new life”

  14. I chose her name because it is the name of a character in one of my favorite books

    • Which book has the main character Zoey?

      • A childrens book called Spy School writtend by Stuart Gibbs. Her name in the book is Zoe, but we wanted a name with and y so we changed it to Zoey. Thx for asking though! (;

  15. I chose the name Zoey because she meant life to me and my family

  16. I love the name Zoey I love everything about her she is the best daughter

  17. I like the name Zoey because it means life and she brings abundantly life to me and my family

  18. I choose zoey cause it is a beautiful name

    • thank you

  19. Our sons name is Xander and we wanted something that went well with his name and Zoey wasnt a name that we heard all the time. We actually waited until she was born to choose a name for her. It fits her perfectly.

    • We had a Zoey, and then a few years later had a Zander – never met anyone with the same names for their kids before regardless of spellings lol- we loved the name combo of Zoey & Zander!

  20. My husband and I have always loved the name Zoey we were just back and forth with the middle names. It’s always been important to me to choose a middle name that honor someone that we love. So Ann is after my husband’s grandmother and Rose is after my mother. Zoey Ann Rose ?

  21. Zoey is the meaning of life and she brung so much happiness to my life

  22. i think zoey is just such a cool, spunky name while also being short and sweet.

  23. I have always loved the name Zoey… My husband also brought the name Zoey to so we both loved them names Zoey but never told each other in till we found out we was having a little girl

  24. I like Zoey cause it was a cute name and fits her

  25. It means “earth” and this is the year of the earth pig in the Chinese zodiac calendar.

  26. When I was a little girl I wanted twin girls named Zoey and Chloe. Since we just had one girl instead of twins, we looked at the meanings of both names and liked the meaning of Zoey better. Zoey means “life” and having a child is bringing a new life into this world. Zoey is used in the Greek version of the Bible which was the representation of our faith. Her middle name is actually faith after my middle name in my mom’s first name. Zoey is easy to spell and pronounce and ahe has the same initials as my husband. We call her cute nicknames like ZoZo.

    • OMG! We had twins and we named them CHLOE AND ZOEY!!!


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