Vanessa was invented by the writer Jonathan Swift around 1713 for his poem Cadenus and Vanessa, as a nickname for Esther Vanhomrigh formed from the first syllables of her surname and first name; it is therefore a "literary name" without an older meaning, though the butterfly genus Vanessa was later named after it. Actresses Vanessa Redgrave and Vanessa Williams carried it through the 20th century. Vanessa ranked number 62 in the United States in 2000, its peak this century, and has declined to number 377 in 2025.