How to say it
LYD · i · a
/ˈlɪd.i.ə/
Feminine
Lydia
From Lydia
What it means
Greek place name, from Lydia, an ancient kingdom in western Anatolia (now western Turkey) famous for its wealth and for inventing coinage. The New Testament Lydia was a successful merchant from Thyatira.
Lydia is a Greek place name, from the ancient kingdom of Lydia in western Anatolia (now western Turkey). Lydia was a wealthy classical kingdom famous for inventing coinage; King Croesus was its last king, and 'rich as Croesus' became a proverb in Greek. In the New Testament (Acts 16), Lydia is a successful purple-cloth merchant from Thyatira who becomes Paul's first European convert. As an English given name it surged in the 18th and 19th centuries, dropped through the mid-20th, and is back in the US top 100 since 2009. Liddy is a rare short.
Popularity over time
peaked at #75 in 1883, currently #92 in 2025.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, names given to at least 5 babies in a year, 1880–present. See where the names are moving
Heads-up notes
- Pop culture
Beetlejuice's Lydia Deetz and Pride and Prejudice's Lydia Bennet are two very different cultural anchors; both flatter the name.
Who's worn it
Historical figures, characters, and public faces who share the name. The cultural surface, for whatever weight you want to give it.
- Lydia (Bible) Paul's first European convert in Acts 16, a purple-cloth merchant
- Lydia Deetz Winona Ryder's character in Beetlejuice (1988)
- Lydia Bennet Youngest of the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice
Spelling variants
- Lidia
- Lydie
Names with the same feeling
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