Prior to the 19th-century, there are references to the massif being called Tomies, Tomish or Toomish mountain. Tempan notes that in The Ancient and Present State of the County of Kerry (1756) by Charles Smith, it is clear this name applied to the whole Purple Mountain Group. Other of 19th-century sources confirm this, and it explains why Purple Mountain is not marked on the 6 map, though Tomies and Shehy Mountain are. In Irish Names of Places, Patrick Weston Joyce writes that Tomies comes from the Irish Tuamaidhe, meaning two burial cairns on the summit. As Purple Mountain gained currency in the 19th century, the older name was relegated in status, and now refers to a lower peak of the group, Tomies Mountain .