It is sometimes said that the original name of the place was Yevata,
and the termination is either the word mal, a hill or a plain,
or a corruption of mahal, chief town of a pargana.,

One more theory states, “Yavatmal” means a some hilly infertile land on high plains,
on such a land, only shrub forest would thrive, But, due to insistence of tall tree forest,
Historian P.R Deshmukh says “originally, this town was known as “Yotmaad” &
if we are separating this term into two, we get “Yot” which means proximate land &
“Maad” means tall trees, initially this town was called “Yeotmal” by British,
Gradually the word “Yeotmal” undergone some changes & a new word “Yavatmal” come
into being & become famous.

The pargana is called Yot-Lohara in the Ain-i-Akbari,
the most ancient account of Yavatmal In History.
Lohara being a village three miles to the west of Yavatmal.
It used to have a village fort, gadhi, which perished many years ago
but was a place of no importance until it was made headquarters of
the Wun district and cultivation in the district began to develop.
The name of the district was changed to Yavatmal in 1905.

During the time of British rule, Yeotmal was considered to be a Hill Station.