 One of the great Sri Lanka Tamil poets, Kumarasamy pulavar gave a new definition to its name in his poem beginning as முடிவில்லா துறை சுன்னாகத்தான் வழி ... , from which, scholars believe that the rising Sun from the East reflecting on the temple of Siva located on the present day station road, has the impression of seeing a shiny mountain, which is presumably the Heaven, the home of Lord Siva made him to inspire for the poem mentioned above here, சுன்னாகம் can be divided into two parts of nouns as சுல் + நாகம் = சுன்னாகம், where சுல் means silver and நாகம் means mountain giving the compound noun the meaning as "Shiny Mountain"

It was once suggested that the name Chunnakam was the equivalent of Pali name Cunnagãma ().But later suggested that the name may be the Tamil equivalent of the Sinhala name Sulunãgama (Pali