Vanessa

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Primarily a girl's name · 100% girls

Origin: Italian

Meaning

Vanessa is a feminine given name. It was created by the Anglo-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", a pet form of Esther.

From Wikipedia

Vanessa first appears in the data in 1996 and has been recorded in 21 different years as a girl's name. Its single biggest year was 2010 with 228 babies (rank #221 that year). It was not in the 2024 data. The name has been declining over the last five years.

Numerology of Vanessa

In Pythagorean numerology, every letter has a value from 1 to 9. Adding the letters of Vanessa yields these three numbers โ€” a playful read on the name's character.

3,046
Total babies (all years)
21
Years in the data
228
Peak in a single year

Popularity Over Time โ€” Girls

Famous people named Vanessa

→ See names similar to Vanessa  ·  Compare Vanessa with another name โ†’  ·  Popular names of the 2010s  ·  Girls names starting with V

More popular girls' names

Other girls' names starting with V

Year-by-Year Detail

Rank is among all girls' names registered that year.

Year Babies Rank
1996213#203
1997145#264
1998129#289
199994#345
2000106#327
200177#408
200270#454
200381#434
200492#405
2005109#373
2006144#310
2007175#278
2008191#257
2009199#246
2010228#221
2011194#253
2012151#325
2013166#286
2014172#279
2015176#280
2016134#360