Presented here is the echosonde (acoustic echosounding) synthesis based on a more rigorous analytical tool than hitherto available. The basic problem addressed in this paper is that of specifying a pattern and solving for the source distribution capable of reproducing the pattern specified. We focus attention on the determination of suitable practical source fields that can provide acceptable pattern approximations to certain prescribed echosonde beams. Numerical and analytical examples discussed, describe patterns synthesizing into physically realizable source fields confined within finite antenna‐aperture regions. Also, other analytical results provided, reveal very clearly that the pattern synthesis problem is not unique. In order to highlight the importance of the present echosonde contribution to the general problem of circular synthesis, we present a brief survey of the synthesis works to date where certain technical problems which still remain unresolved are pointed out. A substantial set of new results for circular echosonde synthesis which has received little attention in the literature, is presented in comprehensive tables for ease of reference. The paper also finally examines an error analysis of certain aspects of the results obtained.