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I don't like Linda at all or Charmaine for a girl. It actually strikes me as more masculine, and I like nn Char for a boy.

I do not like Linda but I do like Charmaine but I think it looks better spelled Sharmaynn.

I find Charmaine interesting to say the least. I'm pretty indifferent about it, but it always reminds me of the character from The Stepford Wives (awesome book.).
Linda is a personal favorite of mine, and I think it's discriminated against with the "old lady/middle-aged woman" stamp, like Barbara and Edith.

I prefer Charmian

Charmaine is supposedly the name of one of Cleopatra VII's personal attendants (read slave). She was in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and was one of the only people around when Cleo finally killed herself. Charmaine may be related to Caroline (through Charles) or kharmion in greek, which means delightful.

Linda is very pretty. It was of course way overused in its time, (my stepfather's twin is Linda and she had something like five other Lindas in school with her. His name is Larry and he had almost that many other Larrys. lol) But you don't see it too much anymore.

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Charmaine, I'm not crazy about. It sounds like either Chow Mein or like Charmin, as in "Please don't squeeze the..."

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Although, Charmaine was the name of our waitress at Applebee's, where I got my first labor contraction. lol