or "the stratum" in Arabic, and likely refers to the geographic or topographic features of the area, such as stepped terrain or layered rock formations along the Euphrates, where the city and dam are located.

Prior to the fall of the Assad regime and after the 1963 Syrian coup d'état, on 8 March 1967, the city was renamed al-Thawrah , meaning The Revolution, in honor of the 1963 Syrian coup d'état and the Ba'athist