Lyndoch was named by Colonel William Light in December 1837 after his esteemed friend Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch under whom he served at the Battle of Barrosa during the Peninsula War in 1811. As in the naming of the Barossa Valley itself, it may have been an unfortunate misspelling that gave the town its name, but reflects the proper pronunciation of "Lynedoch". The town was settled in 1839 and the village laid out later.