Lydia is a name of Greek origin. It means something like ‘the woman from (the geographical area of) Lydia’.
Lydia is a first name typically given to girls, but in rare cases also used as a boys name.
The first name Lydia is one of the top 100 most popular girls names in the US – currently at #82 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Lydia, accounting for approximately 0.20 % of all newborn girls. In the entire USA, approximately 160,579 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Lydia. That is 0.05 % of all living Americans.
Lydia is a name of Greek origin. It means something like ‘the woman from (the geographical area of) Lydia’.
The Kingdom of Lydia was... was located in modern western Turkey. It existed from about 1200 BC to 546 BC.
Lydia Pense (*1947)
The American rock-soul-jazz musician rose to fame as lead singer of the R&B horn funk band Cold Blood which was founded by Larry Field in 1968. Among her greatest hits are "You Got Me Hummin'" (1970) and "Too Many People" (1970). Critics compare her voice to those of Janis Joplin or Aretha Franklin.
Lydia Millet (*1968)
The American novelist became wider known by releasing her book "A Children's Bible" (2020) as it was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction as well as for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The New York Times Book Review named it one of the ten best books of the year. It is about what a group of children is experiencing in the face of climate change.
Lydia Cornell (*1953)
The American actress is best known for portraying Sara Rush on the ABC situation comedy "Too Close for Comfort" (1980 – 1985). In adition she appeared in numerous single episodes of other series such as "Knight Rider" or "The A-Team." She also starred in films, but none of the major productions.
Lydia Baxter (1809 – 1874)
The American poet best known as the author of "The Gate Ajar for Me" (1872) and other Sunday school songs which gained widespread fame and popularity. Among her most famous hymns are "One by One We Cross the River" (1866) and "Go, Work in My vineyard" (1873).
When you hear the name Lydia, you might first think of a woman or a girl. But did you know that there are also places with the name Lydia? Are you also called Lydia? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
In the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak and inland Izmir there used to be an Iron Age kingdom called Lydia. It existed approximately from 1200-546 BC.
There are five unincorporated communities in the USA called Lydia. They are located in Kansas, Lousiana, Minnesota, South Carolina and Virginia.
110 Lydia is the name of a minor planet which is supposed to be composed of nickel-iron. The French astronomer Alphonse Borrelly discovered it in 1870.
Appearing throughout the time in the United States, the name Lydia is a staple in the country: Girls have been given the name Lydia for more than 140 years, according to official U.S. naming statistics. Lydia is therefore one of the 432 girls’ names that have been given every year since 1880. Even beyond that, Lydia is a very special name that peaked in popularity over 100 years ago in the 19th century, ranking in the top 100 girls' names in our SmartGenius first name statistics: With #74 Lydia has never been more popular than back in 1883.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Lydia was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
As many as 2,794 babies were named Lydia in the USA in 2022, ranking it #90 on the list of the most popular girls' names for that year. However, it experienced its lowest point of popularity in 1973, when it was only ranked #322 of all female names in our SmartGenius statistics – back then only 676 girls were named Lydia.
Everyone knows her, everyone loves her and still she’s different from the mainstream: Lydia occurs in every single state of the U.S. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the more than 50,000 different female first names that occur in the USA, just 537 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Lydia is definitely something very special. However, at the same time, since the name does not appear in the top 100 most common first names in any single state, Lydia is not one of those names that one encounters in every neighbourhood, but stands out from the crowd, is noticeable and special without being strange or unknown. From Alaska to Florida, a total of 160,551 women and girls of all generations bear the name Lydia – that is one in 960. However, there are considerable regional differences – the name is far more popular than average in Alaska, where one in 493 women and girls is called Lydia, while it is particularly rare in Wyoming, where you have to ask an average of 1,801 women for their name to get Lydia as an answer once.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter L is a particularly popular initial letter for girls' names – 6.8% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. By the way, the most common first letters for girls’ names are A and S.
With five letters, the name Lydia is comparatively short. In fact, 17.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly five letters. Only 7% of all first names are even shorter, while 75% have more than five letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
That means that with 6.8% of all girls' names that begin with an L, this first letter is much more common than the other letters on average. If you are now wondering which girls' name with L is the most common... the answer is Linda.
If your name is Lydia and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Lydia, you can simply say:
Lion
Yoyo
Dinosaur
Igloo
Apple
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Lydia
Lydia
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
L
Y
D
I
A
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
L
Y
D
I
A
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Lydia sounds like this:
