Zoe/Zoey

I love the name [name]Zoe[/name], but the spelling has always put me off a little. [name]Zoe[/name] to me looks like [name]Zo[/name] (rhymes with [name]Joe[/name]). And I don’t like [name]Zo[/name]” either. I usually hate names that are misspelled, but I like [name]Zoey[/name]. What do you think of the spelling?

I really love [name]Zoey[/name] [name]Margaret[/name]. WDYT? Any other suggestions for middle names? Does [name]Zoey[/name] go with big brothers [name]August[/name] and [name]Dash[/name]'s name?

Thanks!

I think that’s really cute. You could always spell it like the actress, [name]Zooey[/name] Deschanel.

i beg of you not to spell it with a double oo, like zooey deschanel, who spells her name like zooey glass and pronounces it differently. to me, zooey glass is the OG zooey, and his name is ZOO-ee not [name]ZO[/name]-ee.

I love [name]Zoe[/name]. It is a Greek name. [name]Chloe[/name] is pronounced KLOH-ee and everybody gets that. [name]Chloe[/name] is super popular, so since [name]Zoe[/name] sounds and looks like [name]Chloe[/name], the pronunciation of [name]Zoe[/name] is a no-brainer.

I love the name! My little cousin is named [name]Zoey[/name] [name]August[/name].

Thanks [name]Brooke[/name]. I love [name]Zooey[/name] Deschanel, but to me [name]Zooey[/name] would be pronounced Zoo-ee.

[name]Susan[/name], I’m not worried about pronounciation problems if I spelled it [name]Zoe[/name]. I personally just think it looks a little off, which is why I like the spelling [name]Zoey[/name].

[name]Zoey[/name] [name]August[/name] is super cute. Thanks!

My middle name is [name]Zoe[/name] and I really love it! I like it spelled both ways, and I think you should definitely spell it the way that you prefer- its not like spelling ‘[name]Caitlin[/name]’ Kaytelinn or something weird like that, I think that [name]Zoey[/name] isn’t really a mispelling but just another spelling. And I really like [name]Zoe[/name]/[name]Zoey[/name] [name]August[/name] too! [name]Zoe[/name]/[name]Zoey[/name] [name]Margaret[/name] is also nice :slight_smile:

I don’t like it with the y because that’s not how it’s spelled. At least I don’t think that it is, except where people make things easier to pronounce by spelling them easier in English.

That said, I did prefer [name]Killian[/name] to [name]Cillian[/name] because most of our latin root words make a spelling/pronunciation pattern where a C followed by an I or E make an ESS sound not a [name]KAY[/name] sound, and no matter what they do in Irish, I think a lot of those names are just not that intuitive with a lot of the Latin root English that most of us speak. English is a tough language to learn because it’s made up of a mixture of a couple other language roots, so there is no actual rule that Ci is [name]Si[/name], or -oe is OH not O-ee, it’s that one pattern is more familiar in daily speech and spelling than another; every “rule” has exceptions, which doesn’t keep people from mispronouncing a name or word. I generally prefer the “right” spelling over the phonetic adaptation, such as [name]Caitlin[/name] before [name]Katelyn[/name], or [name]Michaela[/name] before [name]McKayla[/name], but then I occasionally break my own rule, for names like [name]Killian[/name] rather than [name]Cillian[/name].

I get that [name]Zoe[/name] looks like [name]Joe[/name] and [name]Moe[/name], so your mind thinks [name]Zo[/name] when it’s [name]Zo[/name]-ee, a kind of mental inconsistency between what you know really and what you recognize. That’s just how it is. I think the addition of the y makes it eternally juvenile or diminutive, such as in [name]Joey[/name].

I don’t know if the umlaut is supposed to direct the pronunciation for sure or if it has been adapted pre-computer due to the lack of symbols or systems to create letters which are not part of our alphabet but which are every so often used in our language on a legitimate word or name. At once, I feel like [name]Zoe[/name] is just how the name is spelled and the umlaut would be both pretentious or difficult for things like forms and fields, but also sometimes that the umlaut is really most correct and even [name]Zoe[/name] is kind of simplified for living in the US. It would be hard for me to pick either, and I love the name, but I’d lean towards, without the umlaut e. [name]Just[/name] like some names look made up if they retain their letter y (like [name]Bryony[/name], we discussed recently), the umlaut was charged by many metal bands using it heavily on their names, for effect and not pronunciation, sometimes even on letters that don’t ever have an umlaut, and possibly to be ironic sometimes.

If a name has some sort of diacritical mark or accent, I feel that it is or may be the correct spelling, but nevertheless, complicated by being beyond our English alphabet. If you look up any name and see how it is used in another country in its language, I feel some Americanization is as valid and acceptable, but not things like adding a y to [name]Zoe[/name] to make it look like it’s pronounced, which creates a “lowest common denominator” effect. I think [name]Zoe[/name] is common enough for people to pronounce correctly, and helping people with their phonics in this case (or in many cases) just doesn’t seem to bode well for society.

Sorry, I assumed you didn’t like the spelling because of pronunciation issues. Your original question was “What do you think of the spelling?” I prefer [name]Zoe[/name] over [name]Zoey[/name], I think because it seems more Greek. I just love Greek names! I think [name]Zoe[/name] is versatile for a baby, child, or adult. But i.m.o. [name]Zoey[/name] looks more like a baby or child’s name.

Oh, no problem [name]Susan[/name]. I asked that because I know [name]Zoey[/name] isn’t the “correct spelling” of [name]Zoe[/name] and wanted opinions on it. Thanks!

This a dilemma that I was also facing. I do prefer the spelling [name]Zoe[/name] vs. [name]Zoey[/name]. My concern was that the rest of the world would pronounce [name]Zoe[/name] as Z-oh. I’m glad to know that I was wrong. Yay for [name]Zoe[/name]!