Why Do So Many Haunt Jaunts Have Ghosts Named Lydia?

Recently I’ve run into a string of of Haunt Jaunts with ghosts named Lydia.

The first time I noticed it was when I wrote about the Blake Street Vault. They have a ghost named Lydia. The name stood out at me because I have a friend named Lydia. In fact, she’s the only Lydia I’ve ever known so her name’s sort of left an impression.

But then I noticed it again when I wrote about the Ghosts & Good Time Girls tour in Alaska. The Red Onion Saloon in Skagway (one of the tour’s stops) has a ghost named Lydia.

Then, most recently, as I researched Jaunts for the Hood to Coast Haunt Jaunts article, I came across Buttertoes Restaurant. I learned from StrangeUSA.com that the restaurant is now out of business and is a private residence (which is why I didn’t include it in the article), but I also learned from Unsolved Mysteries that when Buttertoes was a restaurant the employees called the ghost they believed to haunt the establishment Lydia.

Hmmm…so far something all these Jaunts have in common is they could be classified as Eerie Eateries & Pubs. Also, they’re all in the Western half of the United States.

Out of curiousity I checked the Social Security Administration’s Popular Baby Names database for the years 1880-1916. (1880 is the earliest they have records for. 1916 was just sort of a whim thing.) Lydia doesn’t rank in the Top 20 for those years. But it did rank 77th for 1880, putting it in the Top 100 baby girl names for that year. It also makes me think it was fairly popular even before 1880.

The Blake Street Vault was built in 1863 and served as one of Denver’s first saloons. The Red Onion was built in 1897. I couldn’t find much about the building that once housed Buttertoes. I’m willing to speculate it might have been built in the mid-t0-late-1800s though. I’d be really curiuos to know if it was a saloon or brothel once upon a time too.

Then it all might even fit. Girls born in 1880 (and possibly earlier) named Lydia would have been finding their ways into jobs around the time these buildings were first in operation. Making it very possible indeed that women once known as Lydia are now the ghosts known as Lydia.

Move over Casper, looks like you got competition for most popular ghost name!

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW… 

What names for ghosts have you run across? Any Lydias? Any like this? (Same name for a ghost but in different locations. And if that’s the case, what’s the name?)

Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.

Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.