Unakite is named after the Unaka mountain range of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, where it was first discovered and described. Similar material is found in many other locations around the world.

Unakite is known as the Pompton Granite in a 1/2-square-mile outcrop in the Piedmont physiographic province of New Jersey. That small area has produced architectural stone that has been used in many prominent buildings of New Jersey and surrounding states.

Many locations in the Blue Ridge physiographic province of Virginia have been mined to produce unakite for construction, architectural, and lapidary uses. Unakite has also been produced in South Africa, Sierra Leone, Brazil, and China.