Talk:Vanessa (name)

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[edit] Butterfly

'Vanessa' does indeed mean butterfly – or at least those of one particular genus. The New SOED certainly cites the girl's name as the origin of the word in this sense, but the Chambers Dictionary does not mention this theory – saying simply, "Perhaps for Phanessa, from Greek Phanes, a mystic divinity".

(Why a Swede, writing in Latin, would use a recently coined English girl's name for a genus of Lepidoptera is perhaps a question for another day...)

Whichever theory is true, there is no urban legend involved. An urban legend is an 'anecdote of modern life' (Chambers) – such as the kidney one – not an etymological assertion (whether mistaken or not). Grant 14:48, 25 August 2006 (UTC)