Zoe

In the Greek of the New Testament, zoe is the word for life itself — not mere breath (that is bios) but the vivid, animating kind, the eternal life John's gospel keeps invoking. Early Alexandrian Christians chose it as the Greek translation of Eve (Hebrew Chavah, also from a root meaning life) when they wrote out the Septuagint — and the name has quietly traveled with the language ever since.

It was the name of two early Christian saints, both martyred under Roman emperors; later it was picked up by Byzantine empresses (Zoe Porphyrogenita, the eleventh-century empress whose reign and complicated love life would not look out of place in a contemporary novel); later still by twentieth-century French and German writers and actresses. Zoe entered the American top 100 in 2000 and climbed into the top 30 by 2013, where it has held steady, currently at rank twenty-nine. Famous bearers include Zoe Saldana, Zoe Kazan, Zoë Kravitz (with the diaeresis, a touch of European sophistication), Zoë Wanamaker, and the Sesame Street character Zoe (the orange Muppet).

One syllable in its original Greek form, two in ours — ZO-ee — and in either case it lands with the brightness of a bell struck once. The spelling Zoë with the diaeresis (or umlaut, depending on context) was the original European convention; American spelling has dropped it for ease, though Zoë Kravitz keeps it alive in print. Pairs cleanly with longer middles (Zoe Charlotte, Zoe Mae, Zoe Wren). Nicknames are scarce; the name is already short. Bright, clean, unafraid.