Via the Rivanna and James rivers, it is part of the watershed of Chesapeake Bay.
[2] The river was named for Charles Moorman, who in 1735 patented 400 acres (1.6 km2) of land in what was then Goochland County, at the junction of the Mechum and (now) Moorman rivers.
The Moormans River flows for its entire length in northwestern Albemarle County.
It rises in the Blue Ridge Mountains as two streams, its north and south forks, which flow through Shenandoah National Park.
Below their confluence in a small reservoir serving Charlottesville, the river flows generally eastwardly.