Given name
Inessa
“one who is pure; chaste”
Inessa is a variant of Ines. In Spanish use, Ines carries the interpretation “one who is pure; chaste.”
Original RussianИнесса
Meaning & origin
What it means
Inessa is a variant of Ines. In Spanish use, Ines carries the interpretation “one who is pure; chaste.”
Explained through its name family
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1988. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Inessa through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 659
- 0 boys · 659 girls
- Most popular year
- 2005
- 36 babies
- 2025
- 16
- #6,949 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +22%
- Rising
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 16 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 6,949 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 22.3% higher in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for girls was 36 in 2005. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,528 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Inessa’s family of names
Inessa has a related form in Ines. In Azerbaijani usage, Inessa has a conventional equivalent in the Spanish form Inés. In English usage, Inessa has a conventional equivalent in the Russian form Инесса.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 7
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Inessa
- Inessa ArmandFrench communist politician, editor1874–1920
- Inessa KaagmanDutch association football playerborn 1996
- Assia AhhattUkrainian singer and violinist (born 1965)
- Inessa Korkmazvolleyball playerborn 1972
- Inessa KovalevskayaSoviet animatorborn 1933
- Inessa TushkanovaUkrainian rally driver and modelborn 1987
- Inessa SharovaSoviet and Russian entomologist (1931-2021)
- Inessa MerkulovaRussian dressage riderborn 1964
- Inesa KozlovskayaSoviet-Russian physiologist (1927–2020)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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