The settlement is named after surveyor and civil engineer John Borton, a pioneer of the district, who acquired a nearby run in 1854.[2]
Bortons Pond, the headwaters of the lower Waitaki irrigation scheme, is located at Black Point, to the east of Bortons.[3] It irrigates some 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) of farmland across the South Canterbury and North Otago regions.[4]