It was discovered from the images taken by Voyager 2 on 3 January 1986, and was given the temporary designation S/1986 U 1.

[8] The moon is named after Portia, the heroine of William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice.

The moon will one day either break up into a planetary ring or hit Uranus.

[citation needed] It is the namesake of a group of satellites called the Portia group, which includes Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Rosalind, Cupid, Belinda, and Perdita.

[5] In Voyager 2 imagery, Portia appears as an elongated object whose major axis points towards Uranus.