Zoë?

I like Zoë! I saw a Zoë on a tv show recently and it reminded me what a nice name it is. I know one adult Zoë and one late teens. None that I’m aware of at my DC’s school. I don’t think it was ever popular enough to be particularly dated, and I think it’s a cool sounding name.

We named our kid Zoe and she’s only a few weeks old. I think I’ve heard it on a couple of people but it is not too common.

I have one and it suits her perfectly, we knew it was her name as soon as she was born

obviously I don’t think it’s harsh but I can see where the poster is coming from, it’s not a frilly name but I think it’s a strong name rather than harsh.

we didn’t use the diaeresis on the basis that some systems don’t use them and I don’t want her to be forever irritated by seeing her name typed incorrectly. I don’t see it used for Chloe so I think there’s enough precedent. Also we do call her Zoe rhyming with Joe as a nickname so it’s not completely inaccurate!

If we all based our major life decisions on the capacity of the ‘majority of the population’ we’d all have a very dull existence.

Folk don’t need to know what the diaeresis is called to use it and I like to give people a bit of credit. It is reasonable to expect the people who encounter Zoë in a professional context to spend two minutes learning how to add the diacritic. Friends and family will usually type her name on mobile devices where you can press and hold the e key (iPhone and Android) and after a while it will even learn and autocomplete this for you. I hope we are all agreed that we can ask them to stretch to two extra dots when hand-writing her birthday card.

You don't need a linguistics degree, but I think the point was valid. Most people won't know what the dots are for or what they are called.

Most people can't go beyond an acute on cafe (and slightly related on here, think of the number of times you see click when people mean clique)

the overwhelming majority of the population - who won't have studied linguistics - actually don't know what any particular symbol above a letter does to the pronunciation of that letter.

You certainly don't need a linguistic degree!

I had Zoë for a girl but had 2 DSs. So it's a yes from me!

Lovely name, overdue a revival.

@UsingChangeofName I did say MacBook, not laptop. If it’s a Windows laptop you will need to use alt + 137.

@ZoyaTheDestroyer eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee is what I get when I hold the letter on my laptop.

@Pinkdafodils I think (in the UK, anyway, I can't speak for the rest of the world) Zoe is a well enough known name that everyone knows how to say it. It doesn't need the dots to tell you that. English is the most irregular language in terms of how things are pronounced.
We can work out how to say words that are the exact same letters, differently when we need to, (read / read for example) - I think people can remember how to say a fairly normal name like Zoe.
Plus, of course, the overwhelming majority of the population - who won't have studied linguistics - actually don't know what any particular symbol above a letter does to the pronunciation of that letter.

@TeenDivided , Chloe was very popular in that timeline, and if your friend, neighbour or acquaintance had a Chloe, you'd be less inclined to use Zoe. Similarly, Zara had become popular, and that would put one off using another Z name. #31 to #107 isn't really a fall from grace given those circumstances.

For comparison, 9628 Chloes were registered in 1998, compared with 932 in 2021, and Zoe went from 1341 (#45) to 433 (#116)

www.olbg.com/insights/name-calculator/

Quote:
There have been 473 babies born in England & Wales called Zoe since 2020.
The popularity for the name Zoe peaked in 1996 - with 1,897 born in that year alone, making it the 31st most popular name that year!
Last year, Zoe was the 107th most popular name. Talk about a fall from grace!

Funnily enough there are three in DD’s KS2 class! One is French, one is Greek (and both use the ë) and one is HK Chinese and uses it as her ‘English’ name. I was surprised as I hadn’t thought of it as popular.

I like it! Would've had it on my name shortlist but my cousin had a zoey and there's plenty names without having the same as someone else in the family 😂

Yeah one of our other kids is Joseph so the dots are important to us 😄 but you have to decide and teach your kid to let it go otherwise it will be annoying. Seems OK for Joe and Zoë Sugg (our Joseph goes by something other than Joe so far).

I like it.

At least there won't be 3 in the class.

There are three in my DDs nursery so it's definitely making a comeback.

Èėęěĕəéêëē

If I press and hold e I get eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

By that logic, why put an ‘e’ on the end of ‘Jo’ to spell ‘Joe’? The diaeresis in Zoë at least has a phonetic purpose and it has never been easier to use diacritical marks. On an iPhone / iPad / MacBook you just press and hold the letter and choose from the options - see pic.

so why put them on in the first place

Because Zoë tells people how to pronounce the name correctly

Zoe would be pronounced like Joe!

I quite like it.
Used enough for people to recognise it and know how to say it, but rare enough to probably be the only one in any class or group.

I wouldn't use the dots or any other accent though. Too many people won't know how to even find them on a keyboard / phone etc. Will just end up with them missed off most of the time, so why put them on in the first place.

I really like it. My daughter has a friend called Zoë.

If you use it, how much will it annoy you if someone spells it Zoe or Zoey? Or if they pronounce it Zo? It’s a common enough name but people are annoying.

Love it, preferably with the diaeresis. I think it hits that sweet spot of classic but not common, and could be any age. I love that in a name. Bonus points for not being “frilly”.

zoya thank you. I didn’t know that.