Melynda
Feminine
Melynda puts a y in the least audible place in the name. English reduces the middle vowel here almost to nothing, so an i and a y are equally good ways of writing it — and the y is the one that says the family chose the spelling rather than inherited it.
How old is the name Melynda?
Melynda first appears in US birth records in 1943 — 82 years ago. The typical Melynda alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 2,600 people named Melynda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Melynda most popular?
Melynda peaked in 1973, reaching #1120 nationally. See the whole 1973 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Melinda to Melynda
The story of Melynda
The eighteenth-century stage handed English a set of women's names that had never existed before, made to sound classical and pastoral: Melinda, Belinda, Dorinda, Clarinda, Florinda. They came out of comedies and heroic dramas, they were built rather than descended, and audiences took them home and used them. That is an underappreciated source of English names — not the church, not the aristocracy, but playwrights needing something that sounded right for a shepherdess. Melynda is a twentieth-century American respelling of one of them, two centuries downstream of a theater.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name behind it was invented in the eighteenth century and never had a meaning. Readings assembled from Greek or Spanish words are later attempts to supply one.
How the name formed
- Melinda
- Melynda
Pronouncing Melynda
muh-LIN-duh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. The y and the i are said identically.
Nicknames for Melynda
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
- 1943
- Most girls named
- 1973100 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1120reached in 1973
- Change vs 2019
- 0.0%5 in 2021, from 5
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.
Melyndas among us
people named Melynda are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Melynda sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is said correctly by everyone who has met the commoner spelling.
- It carries three short forms with quite different characters.
- The stress in the middle gives it a lift most English names of its length do not have.
- Melinda is the standard spelling and will be written instead.
- The y adds no sound, so the difference exists only on paper.
- It reads clearly as a name of the middle of the twentieth century.
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Melynda
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Melyndas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,600 people named Melynda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Melynda in 2025?
- Melynda is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Melynda with classmates?
- Melynda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Melynda? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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