How popular is the baby name Zoe in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Zoe.

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Popularity of the baby name Zoe


Posts that mention the name Zoe

Popular baby names in Arizona, 2013

Flag of Arizona
Flag of Arizona

Arizona’s top baby names of 2013 were announced recently.

According to provisional data from the Arizona Department of Health Services, the most popular baby names in the state are Sophia and Liam.

Here are Arizona’s projected top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2013:

Girl names

  1. Sophia
  2. Isabella
  3. Emma
  4. Mia
  5. Olivia
  6. Emily
  7. Abigail
  8. Ava
  9. Sofia
  10. Madison
  11. Elizabeth
  12. Camila
  13. Natalie
  14. Charlotte
  15. Avery
  16. Evelyn
  17. Layla
  18. Victoria
  19. Aria
  20. Samantha

Boy names

  1. Liam
  2. Jacob
  3. Noah
  4. Daniel
  5. Alexander
  6. Aiden
  7. Michael
  8. Mason
  9. Anthony
  10. Jayden
  11. Ethan
  12. Gabriel
  13. Joseph
  14. Benjamin
  15. Elijah
  16. Matthew
  17. David
  18. Isaac
  19. Sebastian
  20. Adrian

My source article called the rise of Liam in Arizona “relatively meteoric.”

Last year it placed fourth. The year before that it was 17th.

And the year before that? It did not even crack the Top 100.

Variant spellings I spotted in the top 100 include Sophia/Sofia, Mia/Mya or Maya/Mya (depends on how you pronounce “Mya”), Zoe/Zoey, Ariana/Arianna, Aiden/Ayden and Jackson/Jaxon/Jaxson.

I also noticed Penelope at #42 on the girls’ list and Lincoln at #75 on the boys’ list.

I’m not sure when the finalized version of Arizona’s 2013 baby name rankings will be released, but I’ll be watching for it. In the meanwhile, here are the rankings from 2012.

Sources: Liam, Sophia most popular Arizona baby names, Top 100 Baby Names in Arizona in 2013 (pdf)

Image: Adapted from Flag of Arizona (public domain)

Popular baby names in California, 2012

Flag of California
Flag of California

The most popular baby names in California have been released.

According to the California Department of Public Health, the state’s top names were Jacob for boys and Sophia for girls.

Here are the top 25 girl names and top 25 boy names of 2012:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Sophia, 3,610 baby girls
2. Isabella, 3,073
3. Emma, 2,423
4. Emily, 2,416
5. Mia, 2,307
6. Olivia, 1,894
7. Sofia, 1,669
8. Abigail, 1,638
9. Samantha, 1,440
10. Ava, 1,404
11. Camila, 1,394
12. Victoria, 1,289
13. Natalie, 1,288
14. Elizabeth, 1,094
15. Chloe, 1,091
16. Evelyn, 1,037
17. Genesis, 1,029
18. Ashley, 997
19. Madison, 985
20. Zoe, 980
21. Charlotte, 908
22. Hailey, 897
23. Melanie, 885
24. Audrey, 854
25. Kimberly, 847		1. Jacob, 2,955 baby boys
2. Jayden, 2,848
3. Ethan, 2,659
4. Daniel 2,654
5. Matthew, 2,623
6. Noah, 2,491
7. Alexander, 2,412
8. Anthony, 2,408
9. Nathan, 2,230
10. Andrew, 2,134
11. David, 2,134
12. Michael, 1,985
13. Aiden, 1,979
14. Angel, 1,940
15. Isaac, 1,857
16. Julian, 1,840
17. Mason, 1,823
18. Adrian, 1,782
19. Jonathan, 1,722
20. Joshua, 1,714
21. Christopher, 1,713
22. Benjamin, 1,663
23. Joseph, 1,633
24. Liam, 1,602
25. Dylan, 1,565

The biggest jumps within the top 25 were Zoe (25th in 2011) and Noah (11th in 2011).

The SSA’s list of California’s top baby names of 2012 is roughly the same.

Source: Statistics – California Department of Public Health

Image: Adapted from Flag of California (public domain)

Popular baby names in Washington state, 2012

Flag of Washington
Flag of Washington

The most popular baby names in Washington state have been released.

According to the state’s Health Department, Washington’s top names are Liam for boys and Sophia for girls.

Here are the top 25 girl names and top 25 boy names of 2012:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Sophia, 473 baby girls
2. Emma, 456
3. Olivia, 438
4. Isabella, 324
5. Ava, 310
6. Emily, 303
7. Abigail, 275
8. Elizabeth, 254
9. Mia, 230
10. Ella, 229
11. Evelyn, 222
12. Chloe, 210
13. Charlotte, 205 (tie)
14. Natalie, 205 (tie)
15. Avery, 202
16. Madison, 200
17. Amelia, 196
18. Grace, 193
19. Lillian, 191 (tie)
20. Zoey, 191 (tie)
21. Lily, 186
22. Hannah, 182
23. Brooklyn, 175
24. Zoe, 173
25. Harper, 172		1. Liam, 409 baby boys
2. Mason, 408
3. Ethan, 394
4. Alexander, 357
5. Benjamin, 336
6. Noah, 329
7. William, 317
8. Jacob, 314
9. James, 313 (tie)
10. Michael, 313 (tie)
11. Daniel, 311
12. Logan, 305
13. Elijah, 296
14. Jackson, 288
15. Lucas, 285
16. Aiden, 284
17. Samuel, 284
18. Henry, 282
19. Wyatt, 271
20. Jayden, 266
21. Gabriel, 258
22. Andrew, 257
23. Owen, 256
24. Isaac, 253
25. David, 249

Sources: Liam, Sophia most popular baby names in Washington, Baby Names – Vital Statistics – Washington State Dept. of Health

Image: Adapted from Flag of Washington (public domain)

What brought the baby name Zoella back in the 2010s?

English blogger/vlogger Zoe Sugg
Zoe Sugg

While I was checking out my traffic stats the other day, I noticed that my Zoella page has been getting a weirdly high number of visitors lately. Which is odd, because Zoella isn’t exactly an in-demand baby name.

In the U.S., usage of rare Zoella peaked in the last decades of the 1800s and first decades of the 1900s. The name has only appeared in the SSA’s baby name data a total of three times:

  • 2012: unlisted
  • 2011: 5 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2010: unlisted
  • […]
  • 1922: unlisted
  • 1921: 5 baby girls named Zoella
  • 1920: 5 baby girls named Zoella [debut]
  • 1919: unlisted

Why are people searching for a name that hasn’t been in style for nearly a century? And, why might Zoella have popped back into the data recently?

Beyond the fact that Zoella looks like a combination of the trendy names Zoe and Ella, my best guess is popular beauty and fashion blogger/vlogger Zoella, a.k.a. 23-year-old Zoë Sugg of Wiltshire, England.

Zoella won the Cosmo Blog Award for “Best established beauty blog” in 2011 and, just a few weeks ago, won “Best British Vlogger” at BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards. She currently has around 3 million subscribers on YouTube.

If Zoella’s visibility has indeed inspired parents to start naming their baby girls Zoella, this could be the very first case of a blogger/vlogger affecting the baby name charts.

Do you like the name Zoella? Do you think it’ll become more popular over the next few years?

P.S. I’ve checked the full England & Wales popularity lists going back to 2007. So far, no Zoella.

Update, Oct. 2020: Zoella has appeared in the data quite a bit since I published this post seven years ago! Here are the latest numbers for Zoella:

  • 2019: 31 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2018: 34 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2017: 13 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2016: 20 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2015: 20 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2014: 13 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2013: 6 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2012: unlisted
  • 2011: 5 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2010: unlisted

And here’s a visual:

baby name Zoella popularity graph

I find it very interesting that the baby name data seems to mirror (with a several-year lag) the Google Trends graph for Zoella:

“United States. 10/25/08 – 10/25/20. Web Search.”

(That high point happened in December of 2014.)

Where do you think the name Zoella is headed? Will usage start to taper off (like the searches did), or will the name stick around in the data (despite the waning popularity of the vlogger who drew attention to it in the first place)?

Update, Jan. 2025: Last month, Zoë Sugg and her boyfriend, Alfred “Alfie” Deyes, welcomed their second daughter, Novie Nell. (Here’s the IG announcement.) Their first daughter, born in mid-2021, was named Ottilie Rue. The name Ottilie was already becoming trendy in England and Wales when they chose it, but Novie is still quite rare. (It was given to just 8 baby girls in 2023.) Do you think we’ll see an uptick in the usage of Novie in England and Wales in 2025?

Sources: Zoe Sugg – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Adapted from Zoe Sugg by Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Jan. 2025]