English. Clarinda first appears as an apparent elaboration of Clara in Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen (1596), [cf. Belinda (1697) and Lucinda (1605)].

A correspondent [CF] notes an ancestor who was alternatively known as Clorinda [as well as a number of spelling variations], with a pet name of Chloë, but we do not consider the latter to be a widely used pet name for Clarinda.