I'd think they were blinded by the glitter of trendy-initial Z. And I'd agree that it certainly surpasses Zebediah ...
My nephew
Alexander was known as
Zander for the first few years, but now he'd happily
Alex. When he was born, his elder brother used to call him, and refer to him as, BabybrotherZander - all one word; which was megacute but of course didn't last.