In this case the synonym should be properly deleted, if not, it cannot be used but still exists on sys.synonyms catalog. You can check it running next script: IF OBJECT_ID('T1') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE T1; GO IF OBJECT_ID('NEW_T1') IS NOT NULL DROP SYNONYM NEW_T1; GO CREATE TABLE T1(f1 int); GO INSERT INTO T1 VALUES (1),(2),(3); GO CREATE SYNONYM NEW_T1 FOR T1; GO SELECT * FROM NEW_T1; GO f1 ----------- 1 2 3 DROP TABLE T1; GO SELECT * FROM NEW_T1; GO Msg 5313, Level 16, State 1, Line 23 Synonym 'NEW_T1' references an invalid object. SELECT name, object_id FROM sys.synonyms WHERE name = 'NEW_T1'; GO name object_id ------ -------------- NEW_T1 1463676262 IF OBJECT_ID('NEW_T1') IS NOT NULL DROP SYNONYM NEW_T1; GO