Vanessa

What Vanessa means

Meaning not yet sourced. Wiktionary has no word-by-word meaning for Vanessa yet, and we don’t write our own.

Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #187 in 2015, #377 in 2025 Worked out from the official US and England & Wales counts, not a meaning.

How popular is Vanessa?

US: Falling: down from #187 in 2015. England & Wales: Falling: down from #279 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1985, when 7,563 girls got the name (#42 that year). First in the US records in 1900.

How common

• About 1 in 1,977 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 4,966 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 3,578 baby girls in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in HI (2.33 per 1,000 girls), NV (1.3 per 1,000 girls), ID (1.12 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Vanessa is #377 in the US and #719 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Vanessa were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Vanesa28 US · 8 E&W

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Vanessa

Girls

• Samantha#151“listener”^*
• Jasmine#206Editor’s note Down from #110 in 2015 to #206 in 2025 in the US
• Alexandra#237“to defend + man”^*
• Andrea#235Feminine form of Andreas, meaning “manly”^*
• Katherine#186Variant of Catherine, possibly meaning “each of the two”^*
• Sarah#90“masters, princes”^*

For a brother

• Tyler#219“tiler”^*
• Jonathan#89“God has given”^*
• Brandon#261“broom shrub + hill, dune”^*
• Joshua#66“to save”^*
• Andrew#73“manly”^*
• Justin#233“just”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under where there are enough, topped up with common names whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Vanessa’s. Place names are only included if they are in the top 300. Rank is US 2025.