Melinda

English combination name

"beautiful honey"

Melinda Origin and Meaning

The name Melinda is a girl's name of English origin meaning "beautiful honey".

In the eighteenth century there was a poetic fad for names with the 'inda' sound, and, along with Belinda, Clarinda, Dorinda and Florinda, Melinda was one of those created at that time. It came into non-literary use in the 1840's, peaking in the U.S. in the late 1960s and 1970s: Melinda was a Top 100 name from 1967 to 1980. It began to fade as nickname Mindy ascended. Nowadays, however, Melinda feels more contemporary than cousins Melissa, Mindy, Belinda and Linda.

Melinda is a name fashioned from two common elements in girls' names. Mel means honey or honeybee, or alternatively dark, and is found as an element in such names as Melissa and Pamela. Linda means beautiful.

Melinda was the name of the lead character played by Jennifer Love Hewitt in Ghost Whisperer; her most prominent modern bearer is philanthropist Melinda Gates. If you don't like the nickname Mindy, you could go with Mel, Lin, or Lindy.

Melinda Rank in US Top 1000

# 934 in the US

Melinda Popularity

• 1285 Nameberry 2023
• 847 Unique 2020
• 272 Germany 2016

20 Names Similar to Melinda

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Melinda.

• Pamela
• Ravenna
• Marian
• Glenda
• Jeanine
• Norma
• Mindy
• Langdon
• Brenda
• Musetta
• Yolanda
• Marta
• Melissa
• Belinda
• Melanie
• Maura
• Jessamine
• Arlene
• Dinah
• Mai

Famous People Named Melinda

• Melinda Leanna Shankar Canadian actress
• Melinda Ann French Gates American philanthropist, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates
• Melinda Patrice "Mindy" Clarke American actress
• Melinda Rose Dillon American actress
• Melinda Rosalie Kinnaman Swedish actress
• Melinda Czink Hungarian tennis player
• Melinda Gebbie American comics artist
• Melinda Hill American comedienne/actress
• Melinda Schwegmann American politician, 49th lieutenant governor of Louisiana
• MelindaJ "Mindy" Barbieri Australian soccer player
• (Melinda) Wrenn Schmidt American actress

Melinda in Pop Culture

• Melinda Gordon character on TV's "Ghost Whisperer"
• Dr. Melinda Warner character on TV's "Law & Order"
• Melinda Sordino main character in "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Melinda Warren character on TV's "Charmed"
• Melinda Halliwell Piper and Leo's daughter on TV's "Charmed"
• Melinda Mickens character on TV's "True Blood"
• Melinda Finster Chuckie's deceased mother on animated series "Rugrats"
• Melinda May a character on TV's "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D"
• Melinda "Mel" Monroe character on TV's "Virgin River"