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Etymology •
& Meaning •
Hebrew •
Greek •
Bible •
Names •
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Meaning and etymology of the name Lydia
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Lydia 
The name Lydia is applied to one woman and one country in the Bible. The one and only female Lydia in the Bible is a woman living and working in Thyatira as a trader in purple fabrics (Acts 16:14). Thyatira (now Akhisar in western Turkey) was made a Macedonian colony in 290 BC and became part of Pergamum in 190 BC. But long before all that, Thyatira was known as Pelopia, and was probably founded by the Lydians, who were once a people that dominated western Anatolia, which is Asia Minor, during the 6th and 7th centuries BC (says the Encyclopedia Britannica). Lydia is considered to be Paul's first European convert.
The country called Lydia is referred to by John the Revelator but not actually named. It's the area that contains the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Loadicea (1:11). In the Old Testament occurs the name Ludim, which in some translations (NIV for instance) occurs as Lydians or men from Lydia (Jeremiah 46:9, Ezekiel 27:10 & 30:5). Other translations have kept the Hebrew names Lud and Ludim.
There's also a town in Hebrew called  (Lod - 1 Chronicles 8:12, Ezra 2:33) which in the Greek of the New Testament is called  (Lydda - Acts 9:32). It was situated where now the Tell Aviv airport is (says Spiros Zodhiates).
Someone from  (Lud) would be called
 (Luday). A female Ludite would be called  (Ludyah), which transliterated into Greek would form (Luddia). That name transliterated into Latin forms our familiar name Lydia.
The name Lydia, therefore, means From Lud, but since Lud means Bender or Almond Tree, the name Lydia means From The Bender, or From The Almond Tree. Lydia is an Almond.
Another famous name that's really a gentilicium is Magdalene.
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