Humanverse

Vanesa vs Vannesa

American parents have registered 6,544 Vanesas since 1880, against 1,220 Vannesas. Vanesa is still ahead, with 28 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Vanesa against Vannesa, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Vanesa Vannesa

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Vanesa has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1953 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1955, when Vanesa had 5 and Vannesa had 5.

Side by side

  Vanesa Vannesa
Total US births 6,5441,220
Most in one year 27154
Babies in 2025 28under 5
Estimated living today 6,4001,200
Median age today 2630
Peak year 20021990
Best rank 850th girls2,317th girls
Rank in 2025 4,758thunranked
First recorded 19531955
Girls / boys 6,539 / 51,220 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Vannesas alive today are over 30; half the Vanesas are over 26. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Vanesa and Vannesa.