It has been proposed that she was initially a separate deity, perhaps known under the name Nin-UM, who came to be absorbed by the goddess of Uruk at some point in the prehistory of Mesopotamia and lost her unknown original character in the process, though in certain contexts she nonetheless could still be treated as distinct.

The worship of Inanna of Zabalam is already attested in the early texts from the Uruk period, which makes her one of the oldest tutelary goddesses of specific cities known from Mesopotamian sources.

[8] According to Joan Goodnick Westenholz, the original character of the tutelary goddess of Zabalam was lost prior to the beginning of recorded history in a process in which "her selfhood was swallowed up by that of Inana of Uruk.

[10] According to Marcos Such-Gutiérrez, Nin-UM additionally occurs in a single literary text from Adab predating the Sargonic period.

[10] Inanna of Zabalam could also be referred to with the name Supālītum (Supallītu), derived from the Akkadian spelling of the toponym, and through a folk etymology connected with the word supālu (sāpalu), "juniper.

[1] A second similar name was Sugallītu (Šugallītu; "she of Zabalam"), whose spelling might have been influenced by the term Esugal, referring to a ziggurat dedicated to Ishtar located in the city of Akkad,[15] or alternatively by the word sukkallu.

[18] Texts from Umma from the Ur III period also use the epithet Nin-Zabalam, "lady of Zabalam", especially when referring to the worship of this goddess in the settlement A-ka-sal4ki.

[21] Julia M. Asher-Greve suggests this tradition was a secondary development, and Shara was only assigned to Inanna as a son to make it possible to refer to her with the epithet ama, "mother", though she also notes it was seemingly not related to motherhood, but rather to senior position in the pantheon and authority over specific cities.

[27] In the Zame Hymns, Nin-UM, a deity possibly identical with Inanna of Zabalam, appears in association with the god Ištaran.

[29] Inanna of Zabalam belonged to the local pantheon of the state (later province) of Umma,[32] though as noted by Manuel Molina, her cult likely already had "supraregional" significance in the late Uruk period.

[6] According to textual sources in the Ur III period the temple was nominally maintained by the governor of Umma, though the city of Zabalam was effectively under direct control of the royal family due to its religious and economic significance for the state.

[40] Texts from Umma from the same period indicate that Inanna of Zabalam ("Nin-Zabalam") was also worshiped in the settlement A-ka-sal4ki, and mention a gudu4 priest and a herdsman in her service.

[45] A year formula of Warad-Sin of Larsa mentions the construction of a temple dedicated to her,[46] the Ekalamtanigurru, "house which inspires dread in the land," according to Andrew R. George possibly to be identified with the earlier structure in Zabalam rebuilt by Shar-Kali-Shari.

[48] Her cult involved maḫḫûm (prophetic "ecstatics"), who are otherwise sparsely attested in southern Mesopotamia, and more commonly occur in texts from the west.

[50] Under the name Šugallītu, Inanna of Zabalam also appears in a greeting formula in a letter from this city (alongside Shamash), in a wisdom text mentioning offerings made to her, and in theophoric names such as Ubar-Šugallītu, Warad-Šugallītu, Šugallītu-gamil (in all cases the spellings used are logographic) and Kuk-Šugallītum (the theonym is spelled syllabically; the first element is Elamite).

[54] A loan document mentions a month named after her, ITI na-ab-ri-ì (from nabrium, a type of festival) ša su-ga-li-ti-im.

[58] In Zabalam itself, Hammurabi of Babylon built a temple named Ezikalamma ("house - the life of the land"), as indicated by inscribed bricks found during excavations.

[51] According to Manfred Krebernik, a reference to dŠu-gal-li-tum also occurs in an incantation postdating the Old Babylonian period in an enumeration of various names of Ishtar.