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Vanessa is a name that was created by the Anglo-Irish poet Jonathan Swift for the title character in his long poem Cadenus and Vanessa, published in 1713. He named the character after a friend of his, Esther Vanhomrigh. The first syllable is from the Van in Vanhomrigh, and the last part is from Esther.

If you want a "meaning" for Vanessa beyond that, you can read the poem and see what the character is like:

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/3377/

There is also a genus of butterflies called Vanessa, but they were named about a century after the poem by the entomologist Fabricius, probably after the character in Swift's poem. But I suppose women or girls named Vanessa could use a butterfly motif if they wanted to link their name to a particular symbol:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mariposa/images/americanlady20pc.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mariposa/species.html&h=307&w=410&sz=35&hl=en&start=12&um=1&usg=___vBnu0RDhcZyywwskdy-K33FJwg=&tbnid=uaAbQj7CAwKeIM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvanessa%2Bbutterfly%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

• What is the meaning of - luvmonkeezz  Nov 10 2008, 2:20:33 PM
  • Re: What is the meaning of - Cleveland Kent Evans  Nov 10 2008, 2:45:26 PM