A spelling variant of Zoe, from Greek meaning life.
Zoi is the Greek spelling of Zoe, one of the most semantically direct names in any language: it means simply "life." The word "zoe" in ancient Greek referred not to mere biological existence but to the full, vibrant quality of being alive — a distinction Greek philosophy drew carefully between "bios" (the arc of a life, biography) and "zoe" (life itself as an animating force). Early Christian theologians seized on "zoe" as a theological term, using it to describe the eternal life promised in the Gospel of John, where the word appears dozens of times.
In the Byzantine Empire, Zoe became a name of imperial weight. Empress Zoe Karbonopsina ("coal-black eyes"), who reigned in the 10th century, and especially Empress Zoe the Macedonian (978–1050), one of the most powerful women in Byzantine history, gave the name an aristocratic grandeur. Zoe the Macedonian co-ruled the empire for decades, commissioned magnificent mosaics in the Hagia Sophia — one of which survives and bears her portrait — and outlasted three husbands in her grip on imperial power.
The Greek spelling Zoi has gained traction in the 21st century as families of Greek heritage reclaim authentic forms of traditional names, and as parents broadly seek spellings that carry a sense of geographic and cultural specificity. Where Zoe has become thoroughly mainstream in English-speaking countries, Zoi retains a Mediterranean distinctiveness — its two-letter ending suggesting the Aegean, the Orthodox calendar, and the ancient philosophical weight of a name that is, at its core, an entire theology compressed into four letters.