Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr
She sounds like a modern mash-up of Zoe and Lola, but this name qualifies as an antique revival.
Thanks to Michelle for suggesting her daughter’s name, Zola, as our Baby Name of the Day.
Before you declare Zola a nouveau invention, check out the stats.
Loved this name so much my youngest daughter is named Zola, but for short we call her Zoe. Zola sounds really cool and different.
Zola is also a nickname for the name Zoe in Greece. We lived there for a few years, and many people told us that, since our daughter is Zoe. Like many greek nicknames though, it’s only used during childhood. I don’t know what age you have to be for people to stop calling you Zola! Also, I should note that with their accent, it has a slight hint of another vowel sound in there, more like “zoula”, but not really enough that you’d differentiate it from Zola.
In Zulu, or at least some of the Zulu people with this name that I have come across, it isn’t said as ZOH-luh, but as ZAW-luh.
I’m really loving Zola. It seems like it would wear well at all ages. I’ll have to add it to my ever expanding list. 🙂
I like Zola! Maybe more than Zinnia!
I had a great aunt named Ola, my grandfather’s sister. (He was Oll.) And get this, her married name was January. Ola January. Nice, right?
Two points of interest with this name on TV:
In Charmed, this was the name of a male “elder”, an angel or superior being I guess.
In Grey’s Anatomy, this is the name of the main character’s adoptive child.
I didn’t know that! Thanks.
Oh, and Zola Gray is divine!
Zola is pretty. It’s so nice to hear names I’ve never heard before, and yet their spelling and pronunciations are intuitive! I personally prefer Nola and Zara, but I’d love to meet a little Zola 🙂
I really like it! I’d probably never get around to using it, but I really like the way it fits with Cleo and Maude (our compromise names but he’s starting to get a mind of his own!).
I really like Zola! Too bad we seem to have an ‘S’ theme happening with our girls.
I’ll admit to being unfamiliar with Emile Zola (actually, I had him confused with Ezra Pound.) But now, having just read further about his actions in the Dreyfus Affair, I could really get behind Zola — although Emile is more my style. 😉
Z is one of my favourite letters of the alphabet, so snazzy! Zola is one of those names you can really elongate too – zoooooooooooo-laaaahhhh! 🙂
It is fun to say, isn’t it? 🙂
I love Zola! Very neat. Very feminine. But also very elegant! But, then again, I also adore Zara and have a soft spot for Zora. All fabulous names!
As a Lola, soundalike Zola is awfully cool, but too similar for my family: Lola, Ken, Leo, Simon, Josephine & Zola? Nope!
I do remember being pleased when Zola Ivy’s birth was announced. I thought “Wow, neat”! And that’s still what I think of Zola. Very, very neat! 🙂
I like Zoletta better, Zola reminds me of Zoloft
Isn’t Zoletta fabulous? My new favorite find.
My great-grandfather, Cluro Elmer, had a sister named Zula Ethel. Their parents had Germanic surnames and were born in the US, so I’m not sure how they ended up being named Cluro and Zula.
Ooooh, very fascinating sibset names! I think I prefer Zula to Zola.
WOW! My husband’s parents tried to give their kids American typical names and didn’t get it quite right, and I know another second generation American family with a similar tale. I always wonder what it must like to name a child in a culture that is so unfamiliar, knowing that your child will grow up in it …
This must surely be one of the coolest “antique names” out there!
I’d never use it but I think it’s a cool name! I can picture it on a little girl, definitely a teenager, and a grown woman.