A variant of Vanessa, a literary name coined by Jonathan Swift and later used as a butterfly name.
Vanesa — spelled with one 's' — is the Spanish and Croatian form of Vanessa, one of the most extraordinary names in the English literary tradition because it was, so far as scholars can tell, invented whole cloth by Jonathan Swift. In 1713, Swift composed a long poem called "Cadenus and Vanessa," addressed to his close companion Esther Vanhomrigh. He constructed "Vanessa" by taking the first syllable of her surname, "Van," and combining it with "Essa," a pet form of Esther — creating a name out of the woman herself.
That a name coined in a single poem should colonize the naming practices of dozens of languages across three centuries is testament to its beauty. Vanessa spread rapidly through eighteenth and nineteenth century English literature and society, helped along by the discovery that "Vanessa" is also a genus of butterfly — named in 1807 by the Danish entomologist Johan Christian Fabricius. The coincidence (or perhaps, the influence of Swift's poem on Fabricius) gave the name a second life in natural history, and painted butterflies now carry it through scientific literature worldwide.
In Spain and Latin America, the form Vanesa — dropped 's' — became the standard spelling, giving the name a distinctly Hispanic identity. Vanesa has been borne by Spanish-language actresses, musicians, and athletes, most notably Vanesa Romero, the Spanish actress and television personality. In contemporary Spanish-speaking cultures, the name peaked in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s and now carries a warm, slightly nostalgic quality — a name parents choose when they love something familiar made personal by the single-letter distinction that marks its heritage.