Lorna was invented by the English author R.D. Blackmore for his 1869 novel *Lorna Doone* — possibly from the Scottish place name Lorn (Argyll) or the Latin *laurus* ("laurel"). **A top-300 US baby name from 1920 to 1950**. ***Lorna Doone* (1869)** — **R.D. Blackmore's romance set in 17th-century Exmoor; the title character is a noblewoman raised by the outlaw Doone clan who falls in love with the yeoman farmer John Ridd; one of the best-selling English novels of the Victorian era and never out of print since publication, adapted for film and TV more than a dozen times**. **The Lorna Doone shortbread cookie (Nabisco, 1912) was named after the novel and remains one of the longest-running packaged cookies in America**. **Lorna Luft (born 1952)** — American actress and singer; daughter of Judy Garland and half-sister of Liza Minnelli. **Lorna Simpson (born 1960)** — American conceptual artist and photographer; first African American woman to exhibit at the Venice Biennale (1990). **Lorna Wing (1928-2014)** — British psychiatrist who introduced the term "Asperger syndrome" to the English-speaking world and pioneered the autism-spectrum concept. **Lorna Kesterson** — first woman mayor of Henderson, Nevada.
Featured throughout English literature since the Victorian era.
Lorna reduces to three — the number of Lorna Doone.