Vol. 41 No. 4 (1993)
Research Article

How Vanessa Became a Butterfly: A Psychologist's Adventure in Entomological Etymology

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  • Cleveland Kent Evans
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1993.41.4.276

Published 1993-12-01

Copyright (c) 1993 Maney

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

Most American baby name books claim that the origin of the name Vanessa is a Greek word meaning ‘butterfly,’ while British authorities claim that the name is the literary invention of Jonathan Swift. Evidence is presented showing that not only is the latter derivation the correct one, but also that the entomologist Johann Fabricius probably named a genus of butterfly Vanessa after the character in Swift's poem.

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