Vanessa

[pigletpower]

Just found out that this is a made up name.Invented by Jonathon Swift.

it's still a lovely name

I know what you mean, but I guess all names were made up by someone!

Didn't people say that Wendy was created by J M Barrie for 'Peter Pan'?

If it's going to be invented by someone you can't get much better than Dean Swift.

Yep, JM Barrie invented Wendy, it was a twist of Friendy/Fwendy if I recall.

Shakespeare made a few names. I think Miranda and Cordelia? Jessica? Imogen?

They all just come from putting other names together or changing spellings or whatever. Most names were made up like this at some point or taken from other objects.