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As is pretty well-known here, my mother's name was Zoe, and in our family we pronounced it ZO, with the long O. My college roommate's name was Zoe, and she also pronounced it ZO. I think the latter fact is what made me insist for a long time that ZO was an acceptable alternate pronunciation. But this site doesn't list it as one, and I don't think I've seen it listed as one anywhere else, either. I've finally come to accept the fact that my family and my roommate's family were just wrong. Then again, if people want to pronounce it that way, what is there to stop them?

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My daughter's middle name is Zoe, after my mother and my grandmother, whose middle name it was. We pronounce it ZO because, being that is the pronunciation my mother used, it just wouldn't seem right otherwise. I used to hate the name, because of that pronunciation, and also probably influenced by my mother's hatred of her name (and hate it she did, believe me.) However, I've come to like it with the ZO-ee pronunciation. So I like it, though I don't think I like it enough to ever use it as a first name, and I wouldn't have used it as a middle name if it hadn't been a family name.