Spellings
Lidstone - Lidston - Lydstone - Lydston - Lydestone - Lidewyston Lyuedston - Lyuedistone - Ledestone - Leuediston - Lodyston - Lyddeston - Lyddiston - Luveston - Luveton - Levestone - Leaston - Leadston - Ledston - Leuediston - Letson - Lesson - Lydden - Lydden - Lyddon - Lidson - Liston - Lisson - Lidstow - Ludston - Lytson - Listen

Lidstone has been spelt many ways in the past, in records etc. mainly due to the persons collating the information, spelling names as they sounded.

The meaning of Lidstone
The following is an extract of a reply from Rev. Walter William Skeat to an early family enquirer:

With Lidstone in Middle-English form Lides-toun, we can explain what it means.

Lides would be the genitive case (-es) of a personal name, Lid or an Anglo Saxon equivalent Lid, Lyd, Hlid or Hlyd.

toun (Anglo Saxon - tun) is our -ton (i.e. town).

So basically Lidstone would be the name of a hamlet where a man once lived whose name in modern English would have been Lid.

In the place names of Devon, Lidstone is suggested by Professor Eckwall as deriving from the personal name "Leofede" with a second element "tun" meaning the homestead of Leofede.

It has been said that Lidstone means a stone topping a wall, but this is not believed.