Baby Name of the Day: Lydia

She’s an ancient place name with an appealing spiritual link plus she starts with a lovely, lilting letter.

Thanks to Danielle for suggesting Lydia as our Baby Name of the Day.

From out-of-this-world Luna to flower-power Lily to Biblical Leah, many of our most fashionable baby names are brought to us by the letter L. Lorelei, Layla, Lola, Lucy, London, Lila, Laney, Leighton … it’s a lengthy list, and that’s without counting names like Delaney, Delilah and Romilly with a la-, le- or lu- within.

Lydia is a place name, in this case an ancient one. Today Lydia is part of modern-day Turkey, but through the sixth century BC, Lydia was a powerful kingdom. According to Herodotus, the place name is in homage to their king Lydus.

The first woman called Lydia comes from the New Testament, a wealthy woman and early convert to Christianity. She’s not traditionally a Catholic saint, but she’s revered in several Protestant denominations.

Lydia first caught on post-Reformation. By 1880, when the US rankings were first compiled, Lydia was a Top 100 choice. Notable nineteenth century Lydias include:

Not only did poet Lydia Sigourney earn a living by her literary wits, she inspired many other women to establish Sigourney Societies to encourage reading;
Entrepreneur Lydia Pinkham made a mint selling an herbal tonic;
Philanthropist Lydia Bradley was the first female member of a national bank’s board of directors. Her wealth funded many a philanthropic project, including the founding of Bradley University;
Suffragette and publisher Lydia Becker was active in the 1860s and 1870s;
Abolitionist Lydia Child is best remembered for her Thanksgiving poem Over the River and Through the Woods;
Portrait artist Lydia Emmet has works hanging in the White House and the Met;
Lydia Koidula was an Estonian poet;
Lidia Lopukhova was a Russian ballerina who married famed economist John Maynard Keynes.

Lydia fell into the 200s and 300s for much of the twentieth century, though a few famous bearers of the name can be found, like celeb chef and restauranteur Lidia Bastanich.

She seems like the kind of name that might have been on the rise for years, but that’s not the case. Should we blame Groucho Marx?

In 1939, Groucho Marx performed a song called “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” in At the Circus. Marx performed it often post-film, once famously bringing trading at the New York Stock Exchange to a halt during a highly unscheduled performance in 1950. The lyrics details her tattoos – the Battle of Waterloo, Niagara Falls, Lady Godiva and conclude “You can learn a lot from Lydia!”

Lydia lingers in pop culture. Little sister Dinah Lord performed the song in The Philadelphia Story; so did Robin Williams in The Fisher King and Kermit the Frog on the Muppet Show. Most recently, Heroes featured Lydia the Painted Lady, a member of Sullivan Brothers Carnival.

Other Lydias include:

Impetuous youngest sister Lydia Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice;
Winona Ryder’s Lydia in 1988′s Beetlejuice;
In 1993′s Mrs. Doubtfire the kids included Lydia, nicknamed Lydie.

In recent years, Lydia has climbed again – a sister for Sophia, an alternative to Olivia. And nickname Liddy is just as appealing as Abby or Maddie. She reached #118 in 2009 and ranks in England’s Top 100, too.

She’s a retro choice perfectly in step with current trends, but not yet so popular that parents hesitate to use the name. If there’s any surprise, it’s that we aren’t meeting more little Lydias!

24 thoughts on “Baby Name of the Day: Lydia”

Lydia is nice enough, but does nothing for me. She is kind of on par with names like Julia & Olivia. I want to like them, but something about their sounds fall flat and hearing them more than once makes them sound dull and boring to me.

Share this:

Like this:

24 thoughts on “Baby Name of the Day: Lydia”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Follow “Appellation Mountain”