The name Palmyra was taken from classical antiquity. It referred to the Roman name for a Syrian city state (Tadmor), that was first an Imperial ally, then a province that rose in revolt and seized Roman conquests in Asia Minor and Egypt. The Emperor Aurelian reconquered Palmyra and captured Zenobia, its ruler and self-styled empress. Her subsequent transport to Rome bound in chains of gold is legendary.

To the Romans, Palmyra meant 'place of palms'. Tadmor was an oasis on the old silk road and one of the most important trading centers in the Near East. It became a free city, under Hadrian, and a century later, it was a Roman colony. The King of Palmyra was a reliable Roman ally. However, when the King and his heir were assassinated, Zenobia, one of his wives, ruled in her son's name and revolted against Roman rule. She expanded her country's borders beyond Syria all the way to Egypt and much of Asia Minor.

The sleepy hamlet of Palmyra, Tennessee derived its name from this famous city state. In the years after the first War for American Independence, city building and selling parcels from government land grants was a flourishing economic enterprise. It helped lure settlers to new territories. Aspiring entrepreneurs appropriated the names of famous cities from the classical past. Such fanciful names for wilderness locations paid tribute to the political traditions the United States inherited from the Greek Democracies and the Roman Republic. For many, it also captured the spirit of national expansion that many felt ushered in a new classical age of Democratic and Republican government, under an American Empire.

American cities took on the names of antique city states such as Rome, Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Troy, Memphis, Cairo and Palmyra. How ironic the sons of Palmyra, Tennessee would also rise in rebellion as did the citizens of Palmyra's classical namesake.