What's the name of the point where you are closest or furthest from the ecliptic?
I don't know of a standard term for that quantity, but I'd call it the ecliptic latitude of the zenith.
With north positive and south negative, this would reach a minimum at 6:00 and a maximum at 18:00 local sidereal time.
These correspond to local solar noon or midnight at the solstices and occur 2 hours earlier per month.

The vectors perpendicular to the ecliptic are called the ecliptic poles. The zenith only coincides with one of these on the Arctic or Antarctic circle, at sunrise (winter-spring) or sunset (summer-fall).