Zenobia was born c. 240–241. She bore the gentilicium (surname) Septimia, and her native Palmyrene name was Bat-Zabbai (written "Btzby" in the Palmyrene alphabet, an Aramaic name meaning "daughter of Zabbai"). In Greek—Palmyra's diplomatic and second language, used in many Palmyrene inscriptions—she used the name Zenobia ("one whose life derives from Zeus"). The philologist Wilhelm Dittenberger believed that the name Bat Zabbai underwent a detortum (twist), resulting in the name Zenobia. In Palmyra, names such as Zabeida, Zabdila, Zabbai or Zabda were often transformed into "Zenobios" (masculine) and "Zenobia" (feminine) when written in Greek. The historian Victor Duruy believed that the queen used the Greek name as a translation of her native name in deference to her Greek subjects. The ninth-century historian al-Tabari, in his highly fictionalized account, wrote that the queen's name was Na'ila al-Zabba'. Manichaean sources called her "Tadi".