The subzone was named after Chew Boon Lay (), a prominent businessman in the late 19th century and early 20th century who owned the land where the precinct stands. When a requisition of 1.012 km² of land from his estate was done by the war department of the then colonial government of Singapore, it led to the growth of Boon Lay Village in the 1940s, with a population of about 420 in the early 1960s. Boon Lay Place had earthworks begun in 1969 and had their HDB flats built since 1974.