Inessa as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Inessa

What is the meaning of the name Inessa ?

The baby name Inessa is a Female name , 3 syllables long and is pronounced English: ih-NESS-ə (IPA: /ɪˈnɛsə/); Russian: ee-NESS-ah (IPA: /iˈnɛsə/).

Inessa is Slavic in Origin.

Inessa is a Slavic and especially Russian feminine name, a form of Ines - the Spanish/Portuguese variant of Agnes - ultimately from Greek Hagne ("Hagnē") meaning "pure, chaste." Through the cult of Saint Agnes of Rome (4th century martyr), the name flourished across Christian Europe; Inessa entered Eastern Slavic use in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was boosted in the Soviet period, notably by the revolutionary Inessa Armand. It remains familiar in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of the Baltics and Caucasus.

Variant forms and cognates include Ines, Inés, Inês, Inez, Inesa, Agnes, Agnès, Agnese, Agnieszka, and Agne. Russian usage sometimes shows Agnessa as a related form. Common nicknames are Nessa and Nessie. The meaning associated with all these forms centers on purity and innocence, often linked to the lamb symbolism of Saint Agnes.