Vanessa
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "butterfly".
Name Census estimates that about 242,980 living Americans carry the first name Vanessa. It sits at #335 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Vanessa today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vanessa births was 1985 (7,606 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vanessa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Vanessa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Vanessa is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 984 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
243K
~ 1 in 1,411 Americans
Peak year
1985
7,606 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2014 SSA rank
#335
Tracked since 1900
Census
Vanessa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 239,189 people with the first name Vanessa, which placed it at #237 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#237
National first-name rank
People counted
239K
239,189 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
79.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
49.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vanessa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vanessa is Hispanic at 49.7%. The next largest groups are White (28.8%) and Black (14.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Vanessa described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Vanessa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino49.7% · 118,769
- White28.8% · 68,919
- Black or African American14.1% · 33,752
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 8,203
- Two or more races3.2% · 7,694
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 1,852
Gender
Gender distribution for Vanessa
Out of the 261,777 babies given the name Vanessa since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Vanessa as a male name
- Ranked #13,941 in 2014
- 5 male births in 2014
- Peak: 1988 (72 births)
Vanessa as a female name
- Ranked #335 in 2024
- 933 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (7,564 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vanessa appears almost entirely female. Of the 239,196 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Vanessa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vanessa from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 66,184 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vanessa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Vanessa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Vanessas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Vanessa, while Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,090 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vanessa
The name Vanessa is a modern invention that was first used in literature in the early 17th century. It is believed to have been derived from the word "Phanessa", which was an archaic term used to refer to a female butterfly or moth in Greek. The name was coined by the English explorer and writer Jonathan Swift in his 1713 poem "Cadenus and Vanessa", where he used it as the name of his close friend and romantic interest Esther Vanhomrigh.
The name's connection to butterflies and its euphonic sound contributed to its growing popularity in English-speaking countries over the following centuries. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Vanessa was Vanessa Williams, an English poetess and writer who lived from 1765 to 1835. She was a close friend of the renowned poet and artist William Blake.
In the 19th century, Vanessa became a more widely used name, particularly among upper-class families in Britain and the United States. Notable individuals with this name include Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), a British painter and member of the Bloomsbury Group, and Vanessa Redgrave (born 1937), the acclaimed British actress known for her roles in films like "Isadora" and "Julia".
Other famous Vanessas throughout history include Vanessa Nargarian (1839-1915), an Armenian-American teacher and author who founded the first Armenian Protestant school in the United States, and Vanessa Diffenbaugh (born 1978), an American author best known for her debut novel "The Language of Flowers".
More recently, Vanessa Williams (born 1963) made history as the first African-American woman to be crowned Miss America in 1983, though she later resigned due to a scandal. She went on to have a successful career as an actor and singer.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Vanessa
People
Vanessa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vanessa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vanessa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vanessa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 242,980 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vanessa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,411 US residents.
Is Vanessa a common name?
We classify Vanessa as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 261,777 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vanessa most popular?
The single biggest year for Vanessa was 1985, when 7,606 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vanessa is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vanessa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 239,189 people with the name Vanessa, or 79.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #237 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Vanessa in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Vanessa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vanessa appears almost entirely female. Of the 239,196 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Vanessa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vanessa is Hispanic at 49.7%. The next largest groups are White (28.8%) and Black (14.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Vanessa most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Vanessa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.7% (118,769 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Vanessa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vanessa a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Vanessa in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Vanessa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vanessa in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Vanessa can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Vanessa?
Find out how many Americans are named Vanessa on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.