Variant of Cynthia, from Greek Kynthia, an epithet of Artemis from Mount Cynthus on Delos.
Synthia is a variant spelling of Cynthia, a name whose roots reach back to ancient Greece and the sacred geography of the Aegean. *Kynthia* was an epithet of Artemis, the goddess of the moon, the hunt, and childbirth, derived from Mount Cynthus on the island of Delos — the mythological birthplace of both Artemis and her twin brother Apollo. Artemis as Kynthia was specifically the lunar aspect of the goddess, and the name carried silver, nocturnal, and mysteriously powerful associations from its very origin.
Latin poets, including Propertius, adopted Cynthia as a poetic pseudonym for their beloveds, further embedding the name in the Western literary tradition of idealized feminine beauty. Cynthia entered English-language use during the Renaissance, when classical names and mythological references were fashionable among educated families. It remained in cultured circulation through the 17th and 18th centuries before achieving broad popular use in the 20th century, particularly in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, when it was among the top ten most popular girls' names.
The nickname Cindy became so popular it nearly eclipsed the full form in common speech. Cynthia Nixon, the actress and activist known for *Sex and the City*, has helped maintain the name's contemporary visibility. The Synthia spelling replaces the classical Greek 'C' with a 'S' and the 'i' with a 'y,' creating a distinctly modern, individualized rendering that visually evokes the word "synthetic" — and in doing so, paradoxically distances itself from the very mythology that gives the name its depth. Nevertheless, the sound remains unchanged: all the lunar, classical resonance of the original persists beneath the updated orthography, waiting to be discovered by anyone who looks past the surface spelling.