Venessa
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "from Venus" (the Roman goddess of love and beauty).
Name Census estimates that about 5,225 living Americans carry the first name Venessa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Venessa today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Venessa births was 1984 (239 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Venessa. 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 Venessa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.2K
~ 1 in 65,599 Americans
Peak year
1984
239 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,080
Tracked since 1922
Census
Venessa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,184 people with the first name Venessa, which placed it at #3,810 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
#3,810
National first-name rank
People counted
5.2K
5,184 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
39.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Venessa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Venessa is Hispanic at 39.6%. The next largest groups are White (30.7%) and Black (21.3%). 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 Venessa 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 Venessa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino39.6% · 2,052
- White30.7% · 1,589
- Black or African American21.3% · 1,105
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 185
- Two or more races3.3% · 170
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 83
Popularity
Venessa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Venessa from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 1,978 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
Venessa 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 Venessa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Venessas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Venessa, while Maryland, Oregon, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 120 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Venessa
The name Venessa is a variant of the name Vanessa, which has its origins in the late 16th century. It was first introduced in the poem "The Butterfly Basilisk" by Jonathan Swift in 1712. The name is derived from the Greek word "Phene," meaning "butterfly," and is linked to the mythological figure of a Cymothoe, an Oceanid nymph.
The earliest recorded usage of the name Vanessa can be traced back to the early 18th century. One of the first notable bearers of the name was Vanessa Bell, an English painter and interior designer, born in 1879 and died in 1961. She was a member of the Bloomsbury Group, a collective of English writers, intellectuals, and artists.
Another famous Vanessa from history is Vanessa Redgrave, the acclaimed English actress born in 1937. She is a recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. Her performances in films like "Isadora" and "Julia" have earned her critical acclaim.
In the world of literature, Vanessa Bell was the inspiration for the character of the same name in Virginia Woolf's novel "To the Lighthouse." Virginia Woolf, born in 1882 and died in 1941, was a pioneering modernist writer and a member of the Bloomsbury Group, along with her sister Vanessa Bell.
The name Vanessa also has a connection to the world of science. Vanessa Atalanta is the scientific name for the Red Admiral butterfly, a species found throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. This connection to the butterfly further reinforces the name's origins.
Another notable figure with the name Vanessa is Vanessa Williams, the American actress, singer, and former Miss America. Born in 1963, she was the first African American woman to be crowned Miss America in 1983 but later resigned due to a controversy surrounding unauthorized nude photographs. She has since had a successful career in entertainment, appearing in numerous films and television shows.
People
Venessa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Venessa 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
Venessa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Venessa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,225 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Venessa 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 65,599 US residents.
Is Venessa a common name?
We classify Venessa as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,767 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Venessa most popular?
The single biggest year for Venessa was 1984, when 239 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Venessa is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Venessa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,184 people with the name Venessa, or 1.72 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,810 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 Venessa 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 Venessa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Venessa appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,189 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Venessa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Venessa is Hispanic at 39.6%. The next largest groups are White (30.7%) and Black (21.3%). 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 Venessa most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Venessa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.6% (2,052 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 Venessa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Venessa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Venessa 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 Venessa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Venessa 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 Venessa 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 named Venessa?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Venessa at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.