One of the great Sri Lankan Tamil poets, Muthukumara Kavirayar gave a new definition to its name in his poem beginning as முடிவிலாதுறை சுன்னாகத்தான் வழி ... , from which, scholars believe that the rising Sun from the East reflecting on the temple of Shiva located on the present day station road, has the impression of seeing a shiny mountain, which is presumably the Heaven, the home of Shiva 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 (Sinhala: Hunugama).

Chunnakam is about 5 miles2 in area as it has Punnalaikkadduvan on its East, Uduvil to its South, Sandilipay to its West and Mallakam to its north as bordering villages.

Unlike other places in Northern Sri Lanka, people of Chunnakam also adapted to diversive political beliefs.

During the days of Town Council era, residents always preferred candidates from LSSP to Federal party or Tamil congress and in the 1982 presidential election, the then JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera collected majority votes within Manipay constituency from the two poll booths in Chunnakam only.

There was even a popular rumor about Mr. Wijeweera being kept in a secret place in Chunnakam when he was wanted by the Sri Lankan government following the infamous uprising by his men in the late 80's.