Vanesa
Vanesa was given to 28 girls in 2025, #4,871 among girls’ names; 6,544 Americans have been recorded with it since 1953 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,400 Americans named Vanesa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 20 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Vanesa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Vanesa mean?
Wiktionary, Spanish section
Vanesa is “a female given name, equivalent to English Vanessa”
/baˈnesa/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Spanish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Vanesa?
#4,871 among girls’ names, 2025
Vanesa fell from #3,126 in 2015 to #4,871 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 30.3 to 17.4 per million.
271 babies in 2002, the peak
Vanesa peaked in 2002, when 271 girls were given it, #852 among girls’ names. The 28 births of 2025 are 10% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 28 | #4,871 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 24 | #5,428 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 24 | #5,371 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 26 | #5,163 | 0.02 |
| 2021 | 23 | #5,556 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 22 | #5,653 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 32 | #4,430 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 30 | #4,653 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 41 | #3,764 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 42 | #3,702 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (73)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 54 | #3,126 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 68 | #2,612 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 84 | #2,235 | 0.05 |
| 2012 | 133 | #1,627 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 108 | #1,872 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 118 | #1,760 | 0.07 |
| 2009 | 175 | #1,363 | 0.10 |
| 2008 | 231 | #1,121 | 0.12 |
| 2007 | 236 | #1,101 | 0.12 |
| 2006 | 220 | #1,129 | 0.12 |
| 2005 | 209 | #1,128 | 0.11 |
| 2004 | 220 | #1,057 | 0.12 |
| 2003 | 240 | #969 | 0.13 |
| 2002 | 271 | #852 | 0.15 |
| 2001 | 217 | #991 | 0.12 |
| 2000 | 197 | #1,057 | 0.11 |
| 1999 | 213 | #972 | 0.12 |
| 1998 | 225 | #927 | 0.13 |
| 1997 | 246 | #842 | 0.14 |
| 1996 | 237 | #842 | 0.14 |
| 1995 | 183 | #1,012 | 0.10 |
| 1994 | 209 | #913 | 0.12 |
| 1993 | 164 | #1,100 | 0.09 |
| 1992 | 151 | #1,167 | 0.08 |
| 1991 | 166 | #1,086 | 0.09 |
| 1990 | 151 | #1,141 | 0.08 |
| 1989 | 136 | #1,195 | 0.07 |
| 1988 | 119 | #1,247 | 0.07 |
| 1987 | 119 | #1,215 | 0.07 |
| 1986 | 120 | #1,186 | 0.07 |
| 1985 | 120 | #1,184 | 0.07 |
| 1984 | 129 | #1,086 | 0.08 |
| 1983 | 116 | #1,149 | 0.07 |
| 1982 | 82 | #1,472 | 0.05 |
| 1981 | 67 | #1,713 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 56 | #1,934 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 51 | #2,018 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 34 | #2,568 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 48 | #2,025 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 29 | #2,725 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 25 | #2,964 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 17 | #3,857 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 12 | #4,853 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 16 | #3,887 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 26 | #2,798 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 16 | #3,863 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 8 | #5,951 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 13 | #3,987 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 10 | #4,605 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 10 | #4,475 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 10 | #4,481 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 15 | #3,505 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 10 | #4,522 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 14 | #3,583 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 17 | #3,182 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 13 | #3,676 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 9 | #4,608 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 18 | #2,856 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 9 | #4,522 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 10 | #4,149 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,678 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,570 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 7 | #5,000 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Vanesa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Vanesa has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 73 years of records.
Girls and boys named Vanesa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Vanesa, and how old are they?
6,400 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 6,544 Americans ever recorded as Vanesa. The median Vanesa alive today is 27 years old; half are between 20 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 7,005 people named Vanesa (6,990 women and girls, 15 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,296 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 110 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 358 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,220 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,220 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 495 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Vanesa born?
The states with the most babies named Vanesa are California, Texas and Illinois, with 66% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 1,880 | not ranked | 2.1× |
| Texas | 826 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 359 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| New York | 356 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 270 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 148 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 132 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Arizona | 112 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 103 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Washington | 103 | not ranked | 0.8× |
Where Vanesa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Vanesa is most over-represented in California: since 1953 it was given 2.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Vanesa with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 274,563 babies since 1880, Vanesa is the second most given (2.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 28 of their 841 babies (3.3%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Vanesa
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Vanesa and names like it
- Compare Vanesa and VanessaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sVanesa peaked in 2002.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Vanesa since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Vanesa: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2002The year the most babies were named Vanesa.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Vanesa alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with VMost given first.