Vanessa (name)

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Vanessa Given Name
Gender	Female
Meaning	None, coined from Esther Vanhomrigh (Van + Es → Vanessa)
Origin	Irish / Dutch
Related names	(Pet forms)Nessi, Van, Vaness, Vanny, Fanny, Nester, Ness, Vanessza,(Hungarian), Wanessa (Polish)
Wikipedia articles	All pages beginning with Vanessa

This article is about the female given name. For other uses, see Vanessa.

The name Vanessa was invented by Irish writer Jonathan Swift for Esther Vanhomrigh, whom Swift had met in 1708 and whom he tutored. The name was created by taking "Van" from Vanhomrigh's last name and adding "Essa", the pet form of Esther.

In 1726 the name Vanessa appeared in print for the first time in Cadenus and Vanessa, an autobiographical poem about Swift's relationship with Vanhomrigh. Swift had written the poem in 1713, but it was not published until three years after Vanhomrigh died.

There is a conjectured relationship of Swift's invented name to that of Vannozza dei Cattanei, the mother of the famed Cesare Borgia, who had lived 200 years earlier. It means beautiful.

Vanessa has been adopted later as the name of a genus of butterfly.

The name became popular in modern times following the success of actress Vanessa Redgrave and singer Vanessa Paradis.