Vanessa

Vanessa is an invented literary name coined by the Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift in the early eighteenth century, most likely formed as a pet form of Esther Vanhomrigh, his close companion, by combining the first syllable of her surname with the diminutive suffix -essa. Because Swift used the name in his 1713 poem Cadenus and Vanessa, it entered general use as an original given name rather than deriving from any older linguistic root. The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus later borrowed the name for a genus of butterflies, further cementing its cultural presence. Related feminine names with a similar sound or suffix include Melissa, Clarissa, and Nerissa.