Meaning :butterfly, mystical,clear,vanessa how to a girl's name is pronounced va-ness-ah. it is of greek origin, and the importance of vanessa is butterfly. the name of a genus of butterflies, which are the red admiral and the painted lady. it is also an early 18th-century literary name of english origin created by jonathan swift in gulliver's travels as a nickname for esther vanhomrigh, based on the first syllable of his surname, and, perhaps, the latin, the verb eat what is be. jenessa, vanita and vannaleigh are compound shapes. see also the veneto region. the actresses vanessa redgrave, vanessa williams, the celebrity vanna white.