What Does Vanessa Mean?
The name Vanessa is a purely girl’s name and it is of English origin. The name is not a very old one as it was coined by the writer Jonathan Swift in the 18th century for his book “Gulliver’s travels”, so we can say it is a literary name. The name Vanessa is also the name given to a group of butterflies. Jonathan Swift just coined the name but he did not give a meaning to it, so the commonly accepted meaning of the name Vanessa is “butterfly”.