girl's name
Melinda
muh-LIN-duh
- Origin English
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 3
- Letters 7
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 148,067
Ireland
#564
1993 births
Melinda is an invented name rather than an inherited one — an eighteenth-century literary coinage joining the Greek word for honey to the ending of Belinda and Lucinda. It has no ancient source at all.
- Melinda is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1970, when 4,236 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 34,180 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 2.
Melinda over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 129 |
| 1890s | 157 |
| 1900s | 137 |
| 1910s | 199 |
| 1920s | 202 |
| 1930s | 567 |
| 1940s | 5,423 |
| 1950s | 21,531 |
| 1960s | 36,379 |
| 1970s | 36,577 |
| 1980s | 22,301 |
| 1990s | 7,931 |
| 2000s | 2,495 |
| 2010s | 1,571 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 560 |
What Melinda means
Melinda means honey, from the Greek meli, with a decorative ending carrying no meaning of its own. The second half was borrowed for sound rather than sense.
Where Melinda comes from
Melinda was coined in eighteenth-century English literature, joining the Greek meli, honey — the same root in mellifluous and in Melissa, a bee — to the -inda ending already familiar from Belinda, Clarinda and Lucinda. Those endings came from Spanish and Italian romance and mean nothing on their own; writers treated them as a suffix for making elegant female names. Melinda is a useful reminder that a name having a Greek element does not make it a Greek name, and that plenty of names in wide use are three hundred years old rather than three thousand.
Melinda in use
Melinda peaked in the United States in 1970, when 4,236 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now charts in three of the seven markets we track — 1842nd in France on 20 births, 1984th in the United States on 97 and 2185th in Canada — across 148,067 lifetime births. Our records carry it from 1880, so its measured life covers nearly the whole of the series.
How popular is Melinda?
In 2025, Melinda was given to 97 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Melinda is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Melinda is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mélinda | Mélinda is Melinda written with an acute accent in France, and the spelling parents there overwhelmingly choose: it ranks #1,842 in France, against #6,552 for Melinda. | 2,190 |
Names that peaked alongside Melinda
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Melinda also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Melinda over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
3 nicknames for Melinda
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Melinda in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Melinda
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Melinda — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Melinda
What does the name Melinda mean?
Honey — the Greek meli, with an ending borrowed from Belinda and Lucinda that means nothing.
Is Melinda an ancient name?
No. It was coined in eighteenth-century English literature.
Is Melinda related to Melissa?
In its first element — meli, honey. Melissa is the Greek for a bee.
How popular is Melinda?
1984th in the United States, down from a 1970 peak of 4,225 births.
Is Melinda a girl's or a boy's name?
Melinda is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Melinda?
Melinda has 3 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Melinda?
Melinda is usually shortened to Mel, Lindy and Mindy.
Is Melinda a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Melinda currently ranks #1,842 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.