New Post
Search
Help[Facts] Sharon and Vanessa
Most recently this name bears to actress Sharon Stone, but I think the name became famous by the sadly disappeared actress Sharon Tate. Is that true?
I hope somebody could say me if Vanessa's popularity is also due to another actress - Vanessa Redgrave!
I hope somebody could say me if Vanessa's popularity is also due to another actress - Vanessa Redgrave!
1
Replies
Sharon was inspired by The Song of Solomon 2:1 where it says @I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys'. It transfered to use as a name in the 20th C. with other botanical names, in reference to the yellow-flowered shrub and a species of Hibiscus. In Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1936) one character is Rosasharn (Rose of Sharon). Those two sources, botanical and Biblical, have been responsible for the endurance of the name, though sympathy for Sharon Tate may have inspired some mothers in the years following her death.
Vanessa is also literary, created by Jonathan Swift for his friend Esther Van Homrigh. Someone, somewhere, pulled out of thin air that it must mean 'butterfly' and some editor didn't smack them. Thus the supposed and utterly false meaning helped buoy it in the nature-naming days of the late 60's and early 70's. Association with Vanessa Redgrave and more recently Vanessa Mae doesn't appear to have done it any favours as far as popularity goes.
Devon
Vanessa is also literary, created by Jonathan Swift for his friend Esther Van Homrigh. Someone, somewhere, pulled out of thin air that it must mean 'butterfly' and some editor didn't smack them. Thus the supposed and utterly false meaning helped buoy it in the nature-naming days of the late 60's and early 70's. Association with Vanessa Redgrave and more recently Vanessa Mae doesn't appear to have done it any favours as far as popularity goes.
Devon
1
Just adding . . . one page I found mentioned a butterfly that was identified as a species of the vanessa genus in 1819, so it's not a recent nomenclature.
1
I can't remember the scientists name, I want to say Samuel something or other, but some book of mine (baby name) says that he got the name randomly from a baby name book at the time, when he named the Painted Lady/Thistle butterfly. It's genus is Vanessa.
That is undoubtedly were the erroneous 'butterfly' meaning came from.
-Mina
That is undoubtedly were the erroneous 'butterfly' meaning came from.
-Mina
1
Yep . . . that's what I just said!
1
I don't think that these two names are/were popular due to these actresses, I think that people probably just liked the sound of the names.
1