Alethea is an English-language female first name derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

feminine noun .

Aletheia ''Aletheia'' or Alethia (; ) is truth or disclosure in philosophy. Originating in Ancient Greek philosophy, the term was explicitly used for the first time in the history of philosophy by Parmenides in his poem ''Parmenides#On Nature, On Nature ...

was the

personification Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person, often as an embodiment or incarnation. In the arts, many things are commonly personified, including: places, especially cities, National personification, countries, an ...

of truth in

Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysic ...

. Alethea was not in use as a name prior to the 1500s, and likely originated when English

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

s started using it as a

virtue name Virtue names, also known as grace names, are used as personal names in a number of cultures. They express virtues that the parents wish their child to embody or be associated with. In the English-speaking world, beginning in the 16th century, the P ...

Alethea Howard, Countess of Arundel Alethea Howard, 14th Baroness Talbot, 17th Baroness Strange of Blackmere, 13th Baroness Furnivall, Countess of Arundel (1585 – ), née Lady Alethea Talbot (pronounced "Al-EE-thia"), was a famous patron and art collector, and one of England's f ...

was an early bearer of the name. Variants of the name are also in use. Spelling variants include Aletheia, Alethia, and Aletha. Alethaire or Allethaire is possibly an

Older Southern American English Older Southern American English is a diverse set of English dialects of the Southern United States spoken most widely up until the American Civil War of the 1860s, gradually transforming among its White speakers—possibly first due to pos ...

variant of Alethea that was in use by some

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

families in

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

by the 1700s. Some etymologists have speculated that Alafair is another American variant that developed from Alethaire. The name Alethea became more popular in the 1970s due to

popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art

f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...

or mass art, sometimes contraste ...

influences. The name was among the top 1,000 names used for newborn girls in 1973 and 1974 in the United States, which was the height of its popularity in that country. Increase in usage of the name coincided with a March 1973 guest appearance by 10-year-old child actress

Jodie Foster Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. Foster started her career as a child actor before establishing herself as leading actress in film. She has received List of awards and nominations re ...

in an episode of the American television series ''Kung Fu''. American writer and editor Alethea Kontis was among the girls named after Alethea Patricia Ingram, the character played by Foster. In the episode, Alethea mistakenly believed she witnessed her new friend,

Kwai Chang Caine Kwai Chang Caine ( zh, c=虔官昌, p=Qián Guānchāng) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the ABC 1972–1975 action-adventure western television series ''Kung Fu''. He has been portrayed by David Carradine as an adult Caine, K ...

, commit a murder, made an accusation, and then recanted and told what she believed to be a lie to save him from execution. The character's name was symbolic as her full name means ''truth'' while her nickname,

Lethe In Greek mythology, Lethe (; Ancient Greek: ''Lḗthē''; , ) was one of the rivers of the underworld of Hades. In Classical Greek, the word '' lethe'' ( λήθη) literally means "forgetting", "forgetfulness". The river is also known as Amel ...

, means the opposite: ''

forgetfulness Forgetting or disremembering is the apparent loss or modification of information already encoded and stored in an individual's short or long-term memory. It is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memory, memories are unable to be recall ...

''. There were 66 American girls named Alethea in 1972, the year before the episode aired, and 322 American girls named Alethea in 1973, the year it aired and the year the name was most used in the United States. Variant spellings Alethia and Aletheia also increased in use in the United States for newborn girls between 1972 and 1973. There were 27 American girls called Alethia in 1972 and 74 girls named Alethia in 1973. Fewer than five American girls were named Aletheia in 1972 and five girls were called Aletheia in 1973. The name declined in usage between 1973 and 1974, with 201 girls named Alethea, 46 girls named Alethia, and seven girls named Aletheia. The name has not been among the 1,000 most popular names for American girls since 1974. However, the name remains in steady, occasional use in the United States. There were 74 American newborn girls given the name Alethea in 2023, 40 girls called Aletheia, 16 girls named Alethia, and five girls called Aletha. Although the name has not appeared on popularity charts in other countries, it remains in occasional use worldwide. As of 2023, nine women in Sweden had the name.

People named Alethea

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (born May 9, 1978) is an Inuk filmmaker, known for her work on Inuit life and culture. She is the owner of Unikkaat Studios, a production company in Iqaluit, which produces Inuktitut films. She was awarded the Canadian M ...

(born 1978),

Inuk Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labr ...

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

filmmaker * Alethea Boon (born 1984), New Zealand athlete * Alethea Charlton (1931–1976), British actress * Alethea Garstin (1894–1978), English painter and Royal Academician *

Alethea Hayter Alethea Catharine Hayter (7 November 1911 – 10 January 2006) was an English author and British Council Representative. Family and early life Hayter was the daughter of Sir William Goodenough Hayter, a legal adviser to the Egyptian government, ...

OBE (1911–2006), English author and British Council Representative *

(1585–1654), née Talbot, wife of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel * Alethea Jones, Australian film and television director * Alethea Kontis (born 1976), American author and editor living in Titusville, Florida * Alethea Lewis (1749–1827), English novelist, born at Acton, near Nantwich, Cheshire * Alethea Hill Platt (1860–1932), American artist and educator * Alethea "Thea" Proctor (1879–1966), Australian painter, printmaker, designer, and teacher * Alethea McGrath (1920–2016), Australian actress * Alethea Sedgman (born 1994), Australian sport shooter

People named Aletheia

* Aletheia McCaskill (born 1971), American politician and union activist

Fictional characters

*Alethea Patricia Ingram, a character in a 1973 episode of the American television series ''Kung Fu''

References

{{given name Feminine given names Virtue names

People named Alethea

People named Aletheia

Fictional characters

See also

References