Vanessa

//vəˈnɛsə// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any butterfly of the genus Vanessa.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A female given name originating as a coinage.

    "Vanessa be the Name / By which thou shalt be known to Fame. / Vanessa, by the Gods enroll'd: / Her Name on Earth - shall not be told."

Synonyms

All synonyms
genus vanessa

Example

More examples

"Vanessa loves to knit hats, scarves, and mittens in rainbow colors."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Coined by Jonathan Swift as a pseudonym for a lady friend named Esther Vanhomrigh (or Van Homrigh), an Irish woman of Dutch descent, by taking the Dutch preposition van from her surname and adding -essa (perhaps influenced by the first syllable of Esther).

Etymology 2

From the genus name.

More for "vanessa"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.