Zooey
Zooey was given to 7 girls in 2025, #13,195 among girls’ names; 1,106 Americans have been recorded with it since 2003 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,100 Americans named Zooey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 10 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zooey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zooey mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Zooey is “a female given name from Ancient Greek, variant of Zoë.”
/ˈzoʊ.i/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zooey?
#13,195 among girls’ names, 2025
Zooey fell from #2,350 in 2015 to #13,195 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 44.3 to 4.4 per million.
194 babies in 2012, the peak
Zooey peaked in 2012, when 194 girls were given it, #1,250 among girls’ names. The 7 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #13,195 | under 0.01 |
| 2024 | 6 | #15,279 | under 0.01 |
| 2023 | 13 | #8,480 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 24 | #5,458 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 27 | #4,957 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 22 | #5,661 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 32 | #4,435 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 35 | #4,141 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 52 | #3,144 | 0.03 |
| 2016 | 59 | #2,901 | 0.03 |
Every recorded year (22)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 79 | #2,350 | 0.04 |
| 2014 | 109 | #1,867 | 0.06 |
| 2013 | 138 | #1,569 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 194 | #1,250 | 0.11 |
| 2011 | 108 | #1,873 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 101 | #1,991 | 0.06 |
| 2009 | 54 | #3,159 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 16 | #8,102 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 10 | #11,620 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 8 | #13,591 | under 0.01 |
| 2004 | 6 | #16,087 | under 0.01 |
| 2003 | 6 | #15,767 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Zooey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zooey has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 22 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zooey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zooey, and how old are they?
1,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,106 Americans ever recorded as Zooey. The median Zooey alive today is 13 years old; half are between 10 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 984 people named Zooey (975 women and girls, 9 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,006 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 499 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 599 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Zooey born?
The states with the most babies named Zooey are California, Texas and Florida, with 70% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 202 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Texas | 95 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 29 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| New York | 20 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Ohio | 17 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Washington | 15 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 14 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 13 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Wisconsin | 13 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 11 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Zooey is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zooey is most over-represented in California: since 2003 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Zooey with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 295,155 babies since 1880, Zooey is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 7 of their 9,336 babies (<1%), the seventh most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Zooey
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Zooey and names like it
- Compare Zooey and ZoeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sZooey peaked in 2012.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zooey since 1910.
- The top names of 2012The year the most babies were named Zooey.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zooey alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.