There are numerous resources on this subject, but my favorite is by Louise Pettus, who was a revered local historian for 50 years. She tells the story of how the town was originally called Cocheeco, named for a young Catawba Indian chief, then went by “Little Waxhaw” in the 1800’s. When the railroads came here in the late 1880’s, they named the depots along the 20 miles of original Indian territory with Indian names, giving the name Waxhaw to our neighbors in NC. Now the name “Little Waxhaw” was bound to cause confusion among the stations, so they decided to use the name Heaths for the family that provided the land for the station. But then that name created confusion with our neighbor Heath Springs. The ultimate decision was finally given to the local stationmaster, and the story goes that he asked his wife to choose the name, and she chose to use her maiden name. So, that’s how we ended up, a town in South Carolina having the name of a family in New York. Can’t make this stuff up!