Definition of "Vanessa"

Vanessa

/vəˈnɛsə/

proper noun
1. A female given name originating as a coinage.
  Quotations
  Vanessa be the Name / By which thou shalt be known to Fame. / Vanessa, by the Gods enroll'd: / Her Name on Earth - shall not be told.
  1726, Jonathan Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa
  A kind of girl that May had before only seen in the pages of fashion magazines, bored, disdainful, elegant, reluctantly admitted her. - - - She was asked to see Vanessa on the way out. She knew that the girl would be called something like Vanessa.
  1978, Maeve Binchy, Victoria Line, Central Line, Arrow, published 1993, pages 178, 179