Malinda
Feminine · “honey”
Malinda is Melinda with an a — an eighteenth-century English construction, honey plus a fashionable ending, respelled by American families a century later.
How old is the name Malinda?
Malinda was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Malinda alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 16,000 people named Malinda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Malinda most popular?
Malinda peaked in 1881, reaching #251 nationally. Today it ranks #2859, 2,608 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mel to Malinda
The story of Malinda
Eighteenth-century English literature produced a crop of deliberately constructed names ending in -inda, several of which passed from the page into parish registers. Melinda entered ordinary use in that period, and American families spelled it both ways from the nineteenth century. Malinda appears in the registers in real numbers and peaked around 1885.
Meaningscholars disagree
honey
The usual reading takes the first element from the Greek meli or Latin mel, 'honey', with the -inda ending borrowed from Belinda and Lucinda. Whether the coiner intended the honey sense is not recorded. The a-spelling may also read the first element as Mary or as the Latin malus.
How the name formed
- mel
- Melinda
- Malinda
Related forms: Melinda · Melinda · Malinda
Pronouncing Malinda
muh-LIN-duh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Malinda and Melinda are said identically.
Nicknames for Malinda
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1969460 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #251reached in 1881
- Change vs 2022
- −11.9%59 in 2025, from 67
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Malinda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Melinda in English — spelling variant
- Melinda in Hungarian — related form
- Malinda in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana.
Malindas among us
people named Malinda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 27,242 born in 2025 was named Malinda
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Malinda
- #2859
- Malinda on the 2025 chart
- #894
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Malinda went to 59 girls in 2025, but Malynda is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 66, which makes it the 894th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,965 places above the chart.
- Malinda59
- Malynda7
About 1 girl in 24,353 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 27,242 for Malinda itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Malinda sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Malinda is headed
Malinda should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Malinda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Malinda in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It belongs to a documented family of eighteenth-century literary coinages.
- Lindy and Mal are two short forms at very different registers.
- Three syllables with a strong middle, a rhythm that carries well.
- Melinda is the standard spelling and this one reads as a variant.
- The honey reading is a reconstruction of a coinage rather than a recovered etymology.
- It is strongly period-coded to the nineteenth century.
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What they receive
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Malinda
Feminine · #2859 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Malindas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 16,000 people named Malinda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Malinda?
- Malinda is the most-used spelling in US records — 59 of the 66 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Malynda.
- How popular is the name Malinda in 2025?
- Malinda ranks #2859 among US girl names in 2025, with 59 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Malinda?
- About 1 in every 27,242 US girls born in 2025 was named Malinda — 59 in all.
- Will my child share the name Malinda with classmates?
- Malinda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Malinda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Luci#2859 · Kyah#2859 · Azaliah#2859 · Issa#2859 · Emilly#2859 · Pyper#2859 · Amarie#2859 · Anny#2859
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Malinda? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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