Lydia

The name originates as a Greek geographical descriptor referring to a resident of the kingdom of Lydia in western Anatolia. It entered English print during the sixteenth century and crossed the Atlantic during early colonial settlement. By the time federal record-keeping began in 1880, American families treated it as a familiar staple, though it would wait well over a century to reach its numerical peak.

A Lydia reads as someone who keeps a fountain pen inked and knows how to hem trousers by hand. Because nearly sixty percent of living bearers belong to Gen Z or Gen Alpha, the name currently populates kindergarten cubbies and university seminars rather than drafty parlors. It carries the weight of nineteenth-century novels without having had to endure the nineteenth century. Most people bearing the name today are young enough that their parents selected it from a glowing glass screen.