Lydia

given name · Latin script

Meaning: The name 'Lydia' is an ethnicon, meaning 'the Lydian woman,' which indicates her origin from the historical region of Lydia in Asia Minor, where her home city of Thyatira was located

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/lɪdiə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Lydia is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Russia than in any other country, where it is the 52nd most common given name.

rarermore common
  • PHPhilippines≈1 in 990(inferred from the name graph)
  • NGNigeria≈1 in 1.6K
  • USUnited States1 in 2.4K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Lydia itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Russia (inferred from the name graph)

≈430,000 named Лидия, est.

#90 (measured from records)

of 15M given names

8 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
519 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 990 (inferred from the name graph)

Philippines, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

ЛидияCyrillic(measured from records)
LidiaLatin(measured from records)
לידיהHebrew(measured from records)
ΛυδιαGreek(measured from records)
ลิเดียThai(measured from records)
ልድያEthiopic(measured from records)
ლიდიაGeorgian(measured from records)
리디아Hangul(measured from records)

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Lidia in AR Argentina, MD Moldova, Лидия in RU Russia, Лідія in UA Ukraine and Lidija in HR Croatia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

The name 'Lydia' is an ethnicon, meaning 'the Lydian woman,' which indicates her origin from the historical region of Lydia in Asia Minor, where her home city of Thyatira was located.

Sources 1

  • Biblical Names Compiled Database

Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Lydia counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Lydia is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
RU Russia#52≈430,000 est.≈1 in 327#20Лидия188
UA Ukraine#34≈360,000 est.≈1 in 121listedЛідія54
US United States#386139,5601 in 2.4K139KLydia519
NG Nigeria#344≈130,000 est.≈1 in 1.6K—Lydia86
AR Argentina#133≈110,000 est.≈1 in 40736Lidia102
PH Philippines#222≈110,000 est.≈1 in 990—Lydia89
MD Moldova#7325,849as Lidia1 in 13026KLidia29
HR Croatia#1159,689as Lidija1 in 4369.7KLidija94

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; RENAPER — Nombres de nacimientos (2012–present); e-services.md — living population register; DZS — Imena i prezimena (per-token lookup form). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Lydia is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Lýdia

  • Indonesian given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Malaysia, United States, Philippines

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written 'Lydia, Lÿdįã

  • Turkish given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Türkiye, Netherlands, United Kingdom

    Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani

    Also written Lydiå, Lýdia

  • Hungarian given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Hungary, United States, United Kingdom, Philippines

    Also written Ludia, Lýdia

  • Malagasy given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Madagascar, Philippines, Spain, United States

    Also written Lidia

71 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Lydia is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • The name Lydia is associated with a pioneering and faithful woman from the Bible. Known for her business acumen as a seller of luxurious purple cloth, her generosity, and for being the first Christian convert in Europe, the name suggests qualities of leadership, hospitality, and spiritual openness.

    as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database

  • In English, woman from Lydia; now also means cultured woman

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • In English, Greek; name has come to mean 'cultured woman'.

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • In English, A historical region and ancient kingdom in western Asia Minor, in modern-day Turkey.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Swedish, Lydia är ett bibliskt namn av grekiskt ursprung, ’kvinna från Lydien’. Lydien var en forntida region i Mindre Asien. Formen Lidia används i bl.a. Italien, Tjeckien och Polen. En känd svensk litterär gestalt är Lydia Stille i Hjalmar Söderbergs roman Den allvarsamma leken (1912). I den rikssvenska almanackan 3 december och i den finlandssvenska 23 maj.

    as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

18001850190019502000Liliuokalani, b. 1838Lydia Koidula, b. 1843Lidia Ruslanova, b. 1900Lydia Litvyak, b. 1921Lydia Clarke, b. 1923Lydia Alfonsi, b. 1928Helen Mirren, b. 1945Linda Hunt, b. 1945Lydia Davis, b. 1947Tina Arena, b. 1967
  • Liliuokalanib. 1838USnot in their usual namemonarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom (1838–1917)
  • Lydia Koidulab. 1843EEEstonian poet (1843-1886)
  • Lidia Ruslanovab. 1900RURussian-Soviet singer (1900-1973)
  • Lydia Litvyakb. 1921RUSoviet flying ace
  • Lydia Clarkeb. 1923USAmerican actress and photographer (1923-2018)
  • Lydia Alfonsib. 1928ITItalian actress (1928–2022)
  • Helen Mirrenb. 1945GBnot in their usual nameBritish actress (born 1945)
  • Linda Huntb. 1945USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
  • Lydia Davisb. 1947USAmerican writer (born 1947)
  • Tina Arenab. 1967AUnot in their usual nameAustralian singer, songwriter and television personality

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

InformalHi Lydia,

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 120 sources across 69 countries.

Official registers attesting Lydia
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020139K#403
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20252.7K—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020186#403
HR CroatiaDZS — Učestalost osobnih imena (Popis 2021)202133—
HR CroatiaDZS — Imena i prezimena (per-token lookup form)202131#2,964
MD Moldovae-services.md — living population register—5#3,932

Reference works 4

  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Is Lydia a male or female name?
Lydia is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Lydia mean, and where does it come from?
The name 'Lydia' is an ethnicon, meaning 'the Lydian woman,' which indicates her origin from the historical region of Lydia in Asia Minor, where her home city of Thyatira was located. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
What are other forms of the name Lydia?
In the etymology graph, Lidia, Lydie and Lidiane are forms of the same name in other languages.
In which country does Lydia have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 434 thousand people named Лидия in Russia, more than in any other country we hold.
How do you pronounce Lydia?
A machine transcription gives /lɪdiə/ (IPA) for English.
How common is the name Lydia?
In the United States, the national register counted 139,560 people named Lydia in 2020, about 1 in 2.4 thousand residents.
How common is Lydia compared with other names?
In Russia, Lydia is the 52nd most common given name of 472,143 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Lydia?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/lydia

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Lydia” — the 52nd most common given name in Russia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Lydia parses inside a full name →