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It's well known around here that this was my mother's name, and it's my daughter's middle name, so of course I'm going to respond. It's also well-known that in my family we pronounced it without the final E sound, but I realize that the the pronunciation with the final E sound is much more common, and actually I prefer it, so I'm assuming that's the pronunciation in what I say.

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I think of a Zoe as having an artistic, offbeat personality, as being somebody who marches to the beat of a different drummer. Why I have this image, I don't know, since my mother was not at all like that, and was a very conventional person.

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I think it is a likable name. I didn't used to think so. I was influenced by mother's intense dislike of her name. But I have now come to appreciate it.

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It used to be oddball, if by that you mean unusual. At the time of my mom's birth, it was highly unusual, and I think that's one of the reasons she hated it. At this point, no. Nor is it too common. Not like Jennifer, Emily, Emma, Abigail, Isabella, at least. It seems to me to strike the right balance between being very unusual and very common.

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One opinion that I see often, and which irritates me, is that Zoe is "too cutesy" and "Can you picture this on an old woman?" Actually, I have no problem doing so, since my mom had this name up until her death at age fifty-four, and she would be eighty-one years old if she were alive today. I think the name suits all ages perfectly well.