Vanessa n'est pas dans la Bible — mais la moitié l'est, Esther

Vanessa is not in the Bible — but half of it was taken from a woman who is. This is one of the very few names in the world whose inventor, date and reason we know exactly. Jonathan Swift made it up in 1726, for a poem, out of the name of his friend Esther Vanhomrigh: the Van of her surname and the Essa of her first name, which was Esther. What does the name Vanessa mean? Strictly, nothing. It…