CANDICE

26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the entire treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his return was sitting in his chariot, reading Isaiah the prophet.

29The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that chariot and stay by it.”

30So Philip ran up and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

31“How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,

and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,

so He did not open His mouth.

33In His humiliation He was deprived of justice.

Who can recount His descendants?

For His life was removed from the earth.”a

34“Tell me,” said the eunuch, “who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”

35Then Philip began with this very Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

36As they traveled along the road and came to some water, the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What can prevent me from being baptized?”b 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing. (Source)

LITERAL MEANING

Candice is a variant spelling of Candace, a name which appears in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. ... The English got the name from the Greek Κανδακη (Kandake) which was ultimately derived from a very ancient Kushite word “kdke” meaning “queen mother”. (Source)

This name derives from the Ancient Greek noun “kandákē (κανδάκη)”, which in turn derives from the Egyptian (Meroitic) root “Kdke / Ktke > K(N)Dke”, meaning “glowing”.(Source)

SCRIPTURAL CONTEXT

A “Candace, queen of the Ethiopians” is mentioned in the Bible when the apostle Philip meets “a eunuch of great authority” under her reign and converts him to Christianity (Acts 8:27-39). (Source)

“Ethiopia even to the present day is ruled, according to ancestral custom, by a woman” (2.1.13 cf. Acts 8:27). Jan 24, 2015 (Source)