LUCIA

(female) Feminine form of the old Roman given name Lucius, which is probably a derivative of Latin lux ‘light’. The girl's name is common in Italy and elsewhere, and is found as a learned, Latinate doublet of Lucy in England. St Lucia of Syracuse, who was martyred in 304, was a very popular saint in the Middle Ages; she is often represented in medieval art as blinded and with her eyes on a platter, but the tradition that she had her eyes put out is probably based on nothing more than the association between light and eyes.