The name Pokaist means "little white stones." A 2011 dissertation by a Pukaist descendant includes this meaning in the glossary.
The same work records that the reserve names Pokaist and Peymanoos (meaning "large bare place") are the names of the reserves where the author grew up, and that these names remain in use. Historical records from the early 1900s associated with the wider Lytton mission area also reference Pokaist/Pokhaist as a named place.