Wanessa
From Greek, the name carries the meaning "butterfly". Once given to a couple hundred girls a year in the 2000s, it has thinned to a handful now, so a young Wanessa is a rare meeting today.
Wanessa Pronunciation
What Wanessa means
Where Wanessa comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Wanessa reaches Polish through the more familiar Vanessa, and its short meaning is easy to state: butterfly, motyl in Polish. The link is not folklore. In 1807 the Danish entomologist Johan Christian Fabricius gave the name Vanessa to a genus of butterflies, the one that includes the red admiral, and lepidopterists have used it ever since.
Fabricius liked to draw his scientific names from Greek and from myth, and Vanessa is usually traced to Phanes, an Orphic deity of light and creation. So the Greek origin and the butterfly sense meet in a single scholar's choice. The insect carried the word before the girls did.
The name is light on its feet.
In a Polish class register the form appears plainly, Wanessa with the W that Polish spelling prefers, between a Weronika and a Wiktoria. The imieniny gives it no deep calendar tradition, so the meaning does the work. Say Wanessa and you have named a butterfly.
How many people are named Wanessa
1 in 8255 women in Poland is named Wanessa. 2,731 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #613 among female names.
Wanessa's popularity over time
14 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #624 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #613 name among living women, even as it slips to #624 among newborns.
Where parents choose Wanessa
Wanessa is most popular in Greater Poland, 170% above the national average (29 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+101%) and Lubusz (+101%). It is least common in West Pomeranian and Łódź, both 53% below average.
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Greater Poland
+170%1 in 7,422 babies
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian
+101%1 in 9,944 babies
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Lubusz
+101%1 in 9,931 babies
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West Pomeranian
−53%1 in 42,213 babies
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Łódź
−53%1 in 42,239 babies
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Warmian-Masurian
−44%1 in 35,897 babies
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Greater Poland+170% 29 born1 in 7,422 babies+170%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+101% 11 born1 in 9,944 babies+101%
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Lubusz+101% 5 born1 in 9,931 babies+101%
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Lesser Poland+32% 15 born1 in 15,128 babies+32%
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Lower Silesian+27% 10 born1 in 15,713 babies+27%
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Silesian−3% 11 born1 in 20,689 babies−3%
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Opole−13% 2 born1 in 23,048 babies−13%
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Pomeranian−32% 5 born1 in 29,464 babies−32%
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Masovian−38% 11 born1 in 32,206 babies−38%
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Podlaskie−39% 2 born1 in 32,893 babies−39%
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Warmian-Masurian−44% 2 born1 in 35,897 babies−44%
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West Pomeranian−53% 2 born1 in 42,213 babies−53%
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Łódź−53% 3 born1 in 42,239 babies−53%
Wanessa as a middle name
Wanessa is a first name for 2,731 women in Poland and a middle name for another 654, an 81/19 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 289th, between Malina (655) and Mary (652).
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#287 Louise656
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#288 Malina655
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#289 Wanessa654
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#290 Mary652
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#291 Greta637