According to folk etymology, was the foundation of the village laid by a Maravar chieftain known as Valliathevan, who was given the land by the founder of the Jaffna Kingdom.

The clans of the Maravars of southern Tamil Nadu and the Karaiyars of Valvetthithurai have long had coastal military alliances through trade and marriage.

[10] This native vessel known as a thoni, built with a blend of Jaffna and European tradition, sailed from Valvettithurai to Gloucester in Massachusetts of United States in 1937.

[11] Built in 1930 by native traditional shipwrighters for the purpose of serving as a cargo ship in the Indian rice trade, the vessel was bought by an American known as William C.

[14] One of the earliest members of this organisation was Velupillai Prabhakaran of Valvettithurai, who later became the leader and founder of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

[16][17] The town had been severely affected by the country's civil war with a number of forced disappearances and attacks against local civilians by the Sri Lankan military.

It is situated at the tip of the northern province and is considered as a place of strategic importance due to the presence of the Palk Strait and its close proximity to the coast of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The lagoon attracts a wide variety of water birds including American Flamingoes, ducks, gulls, terns and other shorebirds.

The mouth of the Thondamannar lagoon has the popular Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Murugan called Selva Sannithy.