... English women have been called Lydia after the woman who sold purple dye or silks in Philippi: she became a convert to Christianity, and St. Paul, upon her begging him to do so, dwelt in her house.  The name became a great favourite in England; but has fallen out of fashion. (History of Christian Names, Yonge, 1884)

Lydia, a woman of Thyatira, a town of Lydia, though it is not known whether this was the origin of her name.  Thyatira was noted for its dyeing, and Lydia made her living in Philippi, to which she had removed, by selling purple.  Though by birth an Asiatic, she was Paul's first convert in Macedonia and Europe, and may be considered to have laid the foundation of the European Church.  When Paul and Silas were released from prison, to which they had been consigned after a riot of which they were the innocent cause or occasion, they were received into the house of Lydia, who seems to have been a woman of some wealth, and who doubtless showed them all needed care (Acts xvi. 14, 15, 40). (The Sunday School Teacher's Bible Manual, Hunter, 1894).