Malinda

Malinda is Melinda in disguise. This variant spelling has been used often enough to have appeared consistently in the top 1000 names for girls from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1980's. Since then it's been more rare. People may be turned off the name by the association with the "mal" prefix, meaning "bad, badly." (Malady, malfunction, malice, malpractice, etc.) Since Malinda is a variant spelling of Melinda, I'll mention that Melinda itself has no real meaning; it's an invented name, possibly a combination of the "mel" prefix, as in Melissa, and the popular "inda" ending, or it could be just a re-spelling of Belinda.