Zoe
From the Greek zoë, meaning "life". It stays rare in Poland and goes only to girls, and it has just edged into the thousand most-given names, so meeting one is still memorable.
Zoe Pronunciation
Zoe is pronounced ZO-e (/ˈzɔɛ/).
What Zoe means
Where Zoe comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Zoe comes from the Greek word zoē, which means life. When Jewish scholars in Alexandria translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, they reached for Zoe as their name for the first woman, the one Hebrew calls Chavah, or Eve, whose name also points toward the living. The name arrived among early Christians already bound to that meaning.
A martyr named Zoe was honoured in the early Church, and the name held on across the Greek East for centuries. In eleventh-century Constantinople, Zoe Porphyrogenita ruled as empress, born to the purple and crowned in her own right.
In Poland the name is a newcomer. A teacher reading a class register today might find a Zosia and a Zoe on the same page, the second spelled just as the Greek left it. The Polish gloss holds close to the source: życie, life.
When Zoe celebrates name day
Zoe appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 2 May.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Zoe
1 in 22167 women in Poland is named Zoe. 1,020 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #953 among female names.
Zoe's popularity over time
40 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #393 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2003.
Where parents choose Zoe
Zoe is most popular in Lubusz, 143% above the national average (15 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Opole (+57%) and Silesian (+41%). It is least common in Podlaskie and Łódź, 76% and 62% below average respectively.
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Lubusz
+143%1 in 3,310 babies
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Opole
+57%1 in 5,122 babies
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Silesian
+41%1 in 5,690 babies
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Podlaskie
−76%1 in 32,893 babies
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Łódź
−62%1 in 21,120 babies
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Subcarpathian
−53%1 in 17,224 babies
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Lubusz+143% 15 born1 in 3,310 babies+143%
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Opole+57% 9 born1 in 5,122 babies+57%
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Silesian+41% 40 born1 in 5,690 babies+41%
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Greater Poland+31% 35 born1 in 6,150 babies+31%
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Pomeranian+25% 23 born1 in 6,405 babies+25%
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Lower Silesian+18% 23 born1 in 6,832 babies+18%
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Warmian-Masurian+12% 10 born1 in 7,179 babies+12%
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Lesser Poland+6% 30 born1 in 7,564 babies+6%
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West Pomeranian+5% 11 born1 in 7,675 babies+5%
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Masovian−2% 43 born1 in 8,239 babies−2%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−19% 11 born1 in 9,944 babies−19%
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Holy Cross−42% 4 born1 in 13,858 babies−42%
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Subcarpathian−53% 7 born1 in 17,224 babies−53%
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Łódź−62% 6 born1 in 21,120 babies−62%
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Podlaskie−76% 2 born1 in 32,893 babies−76%
Zoe as a middle name
Zoe is a first name for 1,020 women in Poland and a middle name for another 288, a 78/22 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 397th, between Ema (288) and Radosława (286).
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#395 Kristina290
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#396 Ema288
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#397 Zoe288
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#398 Radosława286
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#399 Dżesika285