Meredith Grey’s adoptive daughter is named Zola.
Zola is an orphaned child from Malawi whom Meredith and Derek Shepherd meet through the hospital’s international-care program. She has a spinal condition requiring treatment, and Derek performs surgery to place a shunt. Meredith and Derek become deeply attached to her and begin the adoption process during the show’s seventh season.
The adoption becomes complicated after Meredith tampers with Derek’s Alzheimer’s clinical trial to help Richard Webber’s wife. Meredith is fired, and the authorities temporarily take Zola away, creating a major emotional crisis for the couple. Meredith and Derek eventually reconcile, complete the adoption, and bring Zola home.
Zola is Meredith and Derek’s oldest child and their only adopted child. Their other children are Derek Bailey Shepherd, named after Miranda Bailey, and Ellis Shepherd, named after Meredith’s mother. A common mix-up is confusing Zola with Sofia, who is Callie Torres and Mark Sloan’s daughter and is raised partly by Arizona Robbins.