Vanessa Girl
How popular is Vanessa?
#377 girl name in 2025
813 baby girls were named Vanessa in the US in 2025, making it the 377th most popular girl name.
Vanessa popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #377 for girls (▼ 43 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 813 girls |
| 10-year trend | Falling fast (-53% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #187 in 2015, #209 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1985 (7,563 girls) |
| Highest rank | #41 in 1988 |
| First recorded | 1900 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.6% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Vanessa counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Vanessa family of names ranked #377 for girls in 2025 (#338 the year before), with 841 babies in all.
| Spelling | Girls in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Vanessa | 813 | 97% |
| Vanesa | 28 | 3% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Vanessa is most popular
Babies named Vanessa per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Nevada: 1.4 per 1,000 (67 girls)
- Washington: 1.0 per 1,000 (150 girls)
- California: 1.0 per 1,000 (815 girls)
- Arizona: 0.9 per 1,000 (131 girls)
- South Carolina: 0.9 per 1,000 (83 girls)
Vanessa by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 6 | #1,722 |
| 1910s | 35 | #2,687 |
| 1920s | 51 | #3,349 |
| 1930s | 124 | #1,264 |
| 1940s | 295 | #1,056 |
| 1950s | 19,170 | #139 |
| 1960s | 20,983 | #147 |
| 1970s | 28,077 | #75 |
| 1980s | 65,731 | #41 |
| 1990s | 57,920 | #52 |
| 2000s | 43,229 | #62 |
| 2010s | 19,600 | #107 |
| 2020s | 6,401 | #209 |
Girl names about as popular as Vanessa
Questions
- Is Vanessa a boy or girl name?
- Vanessa is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Vanessa were girls.
- How popular is the name Vanessa?
- 813 baby girls were named Vanessa in the US in 2025, making it the 377th most popular girl name.
- When was Vanessa most popular?
- Vanessa peaked in 1985, when 7,563 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #41 in 1988.
- How many people are named Vanessa?
- 262,606 babies have been named Vanessa in the US since 1880. We estimate about 251,984 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 37.
- Where is Vanessa most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Vanessa was most common in Nevada, at 1.4 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.