Meaning & origin
What it means
Clarinda is a variant of Clara. Clara is connected with the Latin idea of being famous, and is also interpreted through brightness.
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
Clarinda is a variant of Clara. Clara is a post-classical Latin name used in English, Italian, and German.
Explained through its name family
How it developed
Clarinda is a variant of Clara. The shared background comes through Clara: Clara uses the feminine form of Latin clarus. In English, it represents a return to the Latin form alongside the established spelling Clare.
Explained through its name family
The story
Clarinda appears in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. The formation may have been influenced by Clorinda in Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata, while Robert Burns later addressed poems to Clarinda.
Clarinda through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 1,325
- 0 boys · 1,325 girls
- Most popular year
- 1952
- 35 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 5 in 2006. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for girls was 35 in 1952. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 925 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Clarinda’s family of names
Clarinda has a related form in Clara.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
See also 5
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Clarinda
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Clarinda, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Sanda
“helper and defender of mankind”
>99% girls
Larita
“lara” · “one who is protected; a cheerful woman”
>99% girls
Jonella
“God is gracious”
>99% girls
Gerianne
“one who rules with the spear”
>99% girls
Rosalinde
>99% girls
Sandrea
“helper and defender of mankind”
>99% girls
Geralyn
“one who rules with the spear”
>99% girls
Licia
Licia is a variant of Lecia. In English use, Lecia carries the interpretation “woman of the nobility; truthful; having high moral character.”
>99% girls