Zoe

In the Greek of the New Testament, zoe is the word for life itself — not mere breath but the vivid, animating kind. Early Alexandrian Christians chose it as a translation of Eve, and the name has quietly traveled with the language ever since, picked up by Byzantine empresses and twentieth-century novelists alike. One syllable in its original form, two in ours, and in either case it lands with the brightness of a bell struck once. Zoe now sits at rank 29 in the United States, a perennial favorite among parents drawn to names that feel sunny without tipping into sweet. Short, bright, and unafraid.