Malden got its name after Major George B. Clark had a dream, he told the man in charge of laying out the town, engineer Otto Kochtitzky, "Otto, I know what to name the new town, I dreamed it was named Malden (History of Dunklin County, Vol. II)." The post office was established in 1877, and the first train rolled into town in 1878. The town was officially incorporated on April 22, 1878.