The name Vashti appears as the name of the first queen of the
Persian king
Achashverosh, in the apocryphal book of Esther. The name Vashti
came from
an Elamite goddess. The king has been identified by some as
Xerxes.
Some important contemporary women with that name include Vashti
McKenzie,
the first female Bishop of the AME church, Vashti McCollum, who
won a landmark
US Supreme Court case in 1948, and folk singer Vashti
Bunyan.