Portrait of Jonathan Swift.
Vanessa's name is one of the most popular in the Anglo-Saxon world. In the United States, for example, it is very common to find girls with this name. In other countries such as Spain, its use is not as frequent although, especially in the 80s and 70s, it became quite widespread due to the influence of actresses and famous people from America.
The most curious and distinctive thing about this name is its origin. An origin that, unlike other names, undeniably unites it with literature and its history. There was, therefore, no historical person named Vanessa. Nor can its root be found in Latin. At the same time, this name will not be found in the saints or in the sacred texts of any religion. Before all this we can only ask ourselves one question: Where does Vanessa come from?
Well, Its origin lies in the imagination of its creator, Jonathan Swift, who devised it and showed it for the first time in one of his poems published in 1726 entitled "Cadenus and Vanessa". The writer of "Gulliver's Travels " He created it for one purpose, to honor a woman he loved. The name Vanessa, in this way, was born from Swift's sincere love for her ward Esther Vanhomrigh.
The writer himself came to dedicate the following words to him: "I would be born again with a violent passion, which would end in an inexpressible passion that I feel towards you." A love that, from the underground, marked Swift's life and work in every way.
The death of Esther Vanhomrigh in 1723 filled the Irish writer with grief. This, to demonstrate his feelings towards his beloved, decided to publish the autobiographical poem of their love relationship. Poem that, everything be said, he had been writing since 1712 and where the love adventure between the two protagonists was reflected.
Anyway, to refer to her he encrypted the real name under a pseudonym created by the first syllables of the name and surname of the beloved (Van- and Es-). Thus, the name Vanessa was born for the first time in 1726, never used before in history.
We must remember that Swift had married Esther Johnson in 1716 and that, for this reason, the affair with Esther Vanhomrigh occurred in the context of infidelity with his wife. That is why the writer hid the real name of the lover in the made up name of Vanessa. Not only to safeguard her marriage, but also to protect Esther Vanhomrigh's own reputation.
For this reason, Vanessa will forever be a name that means love and literature, passion and poetry. Swift, surely, never imagined that this name that had been invented based on initials combined at random would be used in the coming centuries by millions of women in the world. Nor that, for example, it would be used years later to name a species of butterfly.
In short, many of the girls named Vanessa will not be aware that his name continues to show the world today a love that has been alive since the XNUMXth century. The love of the great writer Jonathan Swift.