The most common tradition regarded Nanna and his wife Ningal as her parents. Examples of it are present in sources as diverse as a god list from the [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic period]], a hymn of [[Ishme-Dagan]] relaying how Enlil and Ninlil bestowed Inanna's powers upon her, a late syncretic hymn to [[Nanaya]], and an Akkadian ritual from [[Hattusa]]. While some authors assert that in Uruk Inanna was usually regarded as the daughter of the sky god [[Anu|An]], it is possible that references to him as her father are only referring to his status as an ancestor of Nanna and thus his daughter. In literary texts, [[Enlil]] or [[Enki]] may be addressed as her fathers but references to major gods being "fathers" can also be examples of the use of this word as an epithet indicating seniority.
[[Dumuzid]] (later known as Tammuz), the god of shepherds, is usually described as Inanna's husband,{{sfn|Wolkstein|Kramer|1983|pages=x–xi}} but according to some interpretations Inanna's loyalty to him is questionable;{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=108}} in the myth of her descent into the Underworld, she abandons Dumuzid and permits the ''[[gallu|galla]]'' demons to drag him down into the underworld as her replacement.{{sfn|Wolkstein|Kramer|1983|pages=71–84}}{{sfn|Leick|1998|page=93}} In a different myth, ''The Return of Dumuzid'' Inanna instead mourns over Dumuzid's death and ultimately decrees that he will be allowed to return to Heaven to be with her for one half of the year.{{sfn|Wolkstein|Kramer|1983|page=89}}{{sfn|Leick|1998|page=93}} Dina Katz notes that the portrayal of their relationship in Inanna's Descent is unusual;{{sfn|Katz|2015|p=67-68}} it does not resemble the portrayal of their relationship in other myths about Dumuzi's death, which almost never pin the blame for it on Inanna, but rather on demons or even human bandits.{{sfn|Katz|1996|p=93-103}} A large corpus of love poetry describing encounters between Inanna and Dumuzi has been assembled by researchers.{{sfn|Peterson|2010|p=253}} However, local manifestations of Inanna/Ishtar were not necessarily associated with Dumuzi.{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=80}} In [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]], the tutelary deity of the city, [[Zababa]] (a war god), was viewed as the consort of a local hypostasis of Ishtar,{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=78}} though after the [[Old Babylonian period]] [[Bau (goddess)|Bau]], introduced from [[Lagash]], became his spouse (an example of a couple consisting out of a warrior god and a medicine goddess, common in Mesopotamian mythology{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=38}}) and Ishtar of Kish started to instead be worshiped on her own.{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=78}}