Brasstown Bald takes its name from the Cherokee word ltse’yi, meaning New Green Place or Place of Fresh Green, from ltse’hi, meaning green or unripe vegetation, and yi, the locative. The name occurred in several places in the old Cherokee country and was variously spelled Echia, Echoee, and Etchowee, and sometimes became “Brasstown” through confusion of ltse’yi with Untsaiyi, meaning brass. One settlement known to whites as Brasstown stood on upper Brasstown Creek of the Hiwassee River directly northwest of this point, and the area near the spring to the southwest was once an Indian camping ground.