Lydia

This name derives from the Ancient Greek “Lūdós ‎(Λῡδός) Lydía (Λυδία),” meaning “the Lydian woman, the woman of purple, an inhabitant of Lydia, a Lydian.” Lydia of Thyatira is a woman mentioned in the New Testament who is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe. Several Christian denominations have designated her a saint. Lydia was most likely a Greek even though she lived in a Roman settlement. She was a well-to-do agent of a purple-dye firm in Thyatira, a city southeast of Pergamum and approximately 40 miles inland, across the Aegean Sea from Athens. Lydós was the third king of Maeonia in succession to his father, Atys. He was the third and last king of the Atyad dynasty. According to Herodotus, Maeonia became known as Lydia after Lydus’s reign. Lydiane is also a town in east-central Senegal in the Kaolack region.