Zoe

including Giorgio Agamben.

The earliest historical use of the name as a personal name dates to the Hellenistic period, when Alexandrian Jews translating the Septuagint in the 3rd century BCE rendered the Hebrew name Eve (Chavah, meaning living one) as Zōē.

The name was later borne by Saint Zoe of Rome, a martyr who died around 286 CE under the emperor Diocletian, and by Saint Zoe of Pamphylia, martyred in the early 2nd century.

Both saints are commemorated in the Roman Martyrology and the Eastern Orthodox calendar.

Among Byzantine royalty, Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita (978-1050) ruled the Byzantine Empire alongside three husbands and is depicted in a celebrated mosaic in the Hagia Sophia.

The name appears in Russian Orthodox tradition as Zoya, borne most famously by the Soviet partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, executed in 1941.

Literary use includes the heroine of Mikhail Bulgakov’s Zoyka’s Apartment (1926) and a recurring character in the novels of Colette.

Geographic distribution of Zoe extended from Greece through the Orthodox world before reaching Western Europe in the Victorian era, when British and American parents began adopting Greek names with classical resonance.

In the United States, Social Security Administration records first listed Zoe in 1880, but it remained outside the top 1000 for most of the 20th century.

Zoe re-entered the SSA top 1000 in 1986, climbed steadily, and reached No. 30 by 2012. The spelling Zoey rose in parallel and at times surpassed Zoe in annual rankings.

Contemporary bearers include the American actress Zoe Saldana, born in 1978, star of Avatar and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the British YouTube creator Zoe Sugg, and the actress Zoe Kravitz, daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz.

The French politician Zoé Genot and the British author Zoë Heller, whose novel Notes on a Scandal (2003) was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film, further extend the name’s international reach.