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I'm not a huge fan of Melinda. I had a friend named Melinda whom we called Mel. She was a sweet girl so I have nothing but good personal experience with people named Melinda.

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I may use it as a character name, but not for one of my children. I think the dislike make come from the "linda" part of the name, which is tired from its popularity in the last half of the previous century.

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I highly dislike Mindy. Much prefer Mel.

I like Melinda. The Mel- sound is appealing to me; I wish it appeared in more names as I am not on the whole too impressed with the more popular Mels like Melanie and Melissa.

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I'm not huge on Mindy and I can't articulate why. I like Cindy, in a way. It sounds dated in a pearls and sweater sets kind of way that is quaint and appealing. But Mindy...eh. Not as nice. Melinda in and of itself sounds the least dowdy and dated of the -inda names on this site, I think; Florinda and Glorinda strike me as being especially white-haired.

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I grew up knowing a Melinda who only went by Melinda. In retrospect I appreciate it, though I don't think it particularly stood out to me in any sense at the time.

It's fine without nicknames. My friend's mom is named that and goes by it. It's nice. I almost put it on my list. It's just a little bit too prissy an impression for me tho.

I like Melinda but slightly prefer Melina. I think Mindy is a very girly nickname, so If I were a Melinda, I'd probably ditch Mindy somewhere in my twenties and go by my full name from then on. I don't think Melinda demands a nickname.

This message was edited 4/17/2010, 11:27 PM

Aw, Melinda is on my pnl but I'm not too keen on Mindy or Mel. I don't mind Mel so much but often, it's short for Melissa/Melanie, etc. I think Mindy is cute as a sometimes nn but that's it.

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I don't think Melinda on its own demands a nickname but it's three syllables, so it's almost inevitable (I have a three syllable fn)

I like it very much - it's pretty and melodious.

It's kinda cute, but overall I much prefer Melissa or even Melanie. There's no reason for me why it would "need" a nickname, it's not particularly long or too "serious" for a small child.

It's my aunt's middle name, Michelle Melinda. She's always hated it too for some reason.

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I think it's ok, I'm not a fan of the nn Mindy though.

I like the name Melinda. I've only known one person with the name, but she spelled it Malinda. My guess is that they just didn't like the sound of it, but I think it has a nice ring to it. I don't think that Melinda needs a nickname. The Malinda I knew didn't go by a nickname, and I never thought she needed one. Most of the Melissas I've met have just gone by Melissa, and that never seemed too unwieldy to me either.

The first time I heard this name was in school. While watching "The Miracle of Life". The class had a quiz based on Melinda's personal qualms about motherhood. So yeah.

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It IS a neat name, though; it can easily be used on a real person. I wouldn't use it, but if someone were to, Mindy is an okay, if unnecessary, nickname.

Melinda is kinda dated but I like it. It's quite spunky and approachable. Mindy is cute too but there's nothing wrong (or unwieldy) about Melinda.

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BTW, I used to have a close friend named Jennifer "Belinda" and I couldn't figure out why she choose to go by Belinda. I get it now, of course. I wouldn't mind being a Melinda or a Belinda (prefer Melinda, though).

I tend not to like names that begin with "me", like some pronunciations of Megan. I really do hugely enjoy Belinda, and I'm not sure why Melinda gets a thumbs-down from me, but it does. The first syllable isn't obtrusively me-ish ... but I don't enjoy Melanie either. Melinda ... perhaps it's a frillier expanded version of Linda, which isn't at all bad but doesn't need frills. I don't find it unwieldy, but I wouldn't use it either.