The baby name Vesper combines a night sky name with powerful pop culture associations.
Thanks to Shelby for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
WHAT DOES THE NAME VESPER MEAN?
Vesper is the Latin word for the evening star. And the evening star? That was actually the planet Venus.
But wait, you say, the Roman god Vesper is masculine. In Greek, he’s Hesperos or Hesperus. In both traditions, he’s the son of the dawn, the brother of the morning star.
There’s a case that Vesper should be considered a masculine name.
Maybe.
But there are also the Hesperides, nymphs of the sunset and the evening. The Greeks believed that they lived in a garden somewhere on the edge of the world. Sometimes there are just three; other accounts list more. Heracles visited the garden for his eleventh labor, to steal the apples they tended.
The Hesperides became popular in Renaissance art, and their garden is mentioned by everyone from Milton to Shakespeare.
Hesperia is sometimes used as a given name, and that puts Hesper and Vesper back on the list of baby girl names.
JAMES BOND
Modern use makes Vesper feminine, too – thanks to a fictional super spy.
Ian Fleming introduced James Bond in 1953’s Casino Royale. He wrote more than a dozen novels about the suave secret agent.
Fleming created the character Vesper Lynd for Bond’s first adventure. Her name is a play on West Berlin. In Casino Royale, Lynd serves as a double agent – as divided as the city. Vesper proves herself loyal to James in the end. The book was adapted for the big screen for the second time in 2006, with Eva Green as the double agent.
It’s said that Fleming based Vesper on a real life spy, Poland’s Krystyna Skarbek. Resourceful Skarbek organized couriers to bring intelligence reports from Warsaw to Budapest during World War II. She escaped the Gestapo in Hungary. In France, she once cajoled, threatened and bribed Gestapo agents into releasing two of her male colleagues.
Her real life story is arguably more intriguing than the fictional character she inspired.
VESPERS
The baby name Vesper has another special meaning, this one spiritual rather than spycraft.
Vespers – add an ‘s’ – is also known as evensong, an evening prayer service in several religious traditions. Mozart and Vivaldi are among those who have composed musical accompaniments.
Evening prayer services date back to the earliest days of the church in the ancient world. St. Benedict may have been the first to use the term Vespers, back in the sixth century. Specifics vary over the centuries and by faith tradition, but it has traditionally been one of the more important and solemn prayer services of the day.
THE NAME VESPER IN POPULAR CULTURE
Pop culture references include:
- Lloyd Alexander gave the name to the adventurous orphan in a series of young adult novels.
- It’s a surname for one of the families in the 39 Clues series of bestselling adventure books, and the character Damien Vesper is a key player.
- The Batman comics includes a minor character named Vesper Fairchild. She was a love interest for Bruce Wayne. There’s also a Vesper in Marvel’s Genetix series. It feels like a potential superhero name.
- In 2022, a Lithuanian-French-Belgian sci fi film titled Vesper focused on a teenage girl surviving in a postapocalyptic world.
If you’re thinking of the Italian scooter, it’s a Vespa, not a Vesper. It comes from the Italian word for wasp.
HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME VESPER?
There have been a handful of newborn boys and girls given the name over the years. But Vesper’s use has recently increased. Parents chose the name for 81 girls in 2023, along with seven boys. This represents a new high.
Vesper is increasingly popular with Dutch parents, too, ranking in the Top 200 in the Netherlands in recent years.
It fits with so many trends:
- Vesper fits with night sky names like Luna, Stella, and Orion.
- R ending names have been a trend for boys and girls. Vesper follows Harper, Oliver, and Asher into the mainstream.
- The letter V has powered for popular names, from Ava and Olivia to Levi and Everett.
- Nature names, including those , are very much in vogue.
SHARP and STYLISH
There’s something sharp and stylish about the name Vesper. It carries a certain strength, and an intriguing mix of meanings – heroic and spiritual at the same time. It’s potentially unisex, though the numbers give this one to the girls so far.
Overall, if you’re looking for something distinctive and different, but with a story to tell, Vesper could be the perfect name for your family.
What do you think of the baby name Vesper?
This post was originally published on December 24, 2009. It was revised on August 17, 2015 and December 13, 2024.
Interesting thread. I had never seen this page before. Coincidentally, my middle name is Vesperena, and am the youngest of 5 with my oldest sibling being named Venus. (Evening and Morning ). Clearly, my father had an appreciation for Roman mythology as we all studied Latin throughout our schooling in the 80s. I have always wondered if there were any other Vesperena’s out there or whether I was flying solo on this planet??
I used to think it would be a good name for a yacht!
Vesperana is fascinating! It looks like it has never been given to even five girls in a single year – at least not as a first name. Searching old records on Ancestry.com and other genealogical sites, I can see plenty of woman named Vesperina, plus a few called Vespera, but so far, no Vesperanas!