Name of the Week

Literary Lorna has long been one to fluctuate
back into fashion. Currently it's more likely to be mum's name than baby's,
but soon it will have the same retro vibe as Hazel or Gemma.

 

Origin:

Put Lorna in the same group as Fiona, Miranda and Pamela - a name coined and popularised by an author. In Lorna's case it was used in 1869 by Richard Doddridge Blackmore for his highly popular novel Lorna Doone.  Blackmore is most likely to have derived the name from the surname Lorne -- taken from the Scottish place. Indeed, in the the novel, the Earl of Lorne is Lorna's maternal grandfather. Her true lineage is, for most of the novel, a mystery and in coining Lorna from Lorne, Blackmore gave his readers a heavy hint.  Lorne itself is an ancient district in the west of Scotland, said to derive its name from a legendary figure Loarn mac Eirc, who was ruler of the Scottish Kingdom of Dál Riata and was also known as Loarn Mor "The great fox." Lorna could therefore simply be traced back to the Proto-Celtic *luφerno / *loferno "fox." However, K.M.Sheard puts forward the theory that the figure of Loarn was simply invented to explain the already existing place-name and could possibly be derived from the name of the Celtic goddess Latiaran.

Usage:

Generally, Blackmore is credited with having invented Lorna. What we can definitely say is that he popularised it. When the first edition of Lorna Doone was published it sold poorly, but the release of the second edition happily coincided with the announcement of the highly publicised engagement of the Marquess of Lorne to Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Louise. When people assumed the novel was about the Marquess' family, its popularity sky-rocketed. Transcribed records for Lornas pre-1869 can be found dotted around the internet, such as on FreeBMD, but when I have examined some the actual scanned pages, they are clearly misreadings of Lorena/Lorina which had been in moderate use since the 17th century. Certainly, when Charlotte Mary Yonge wrote History of Christian Names in 1863, no mention was made of Lorna. If Lorna was used before (which isn't unlikely), we can assume it was purely by the parent's own design and not because the name was previously 'established' before the novel.  After the novel's publication, we can see clear evidence of Lorna in use. Some girls were even given the name "Lorna Doone," pointing directly to the influence of the novel.  Data from The Surname Atlas Data from the 1881 census shows that, with 127 examples, Lorna by that time was low in use but widely spread across England. It also saw some use in Scotland, where Lorne was used as a family surname-firstname.  Birth registrations in England and Wales also show how the name gradually saw wider use: 1860-9: 0 births 1870-9: 28 births 1880-9: 128 births 1890-9: 479 births In 1900 alone, 88 girls were registered with the name, putting it at around #216. Over the course of the 20th century, Lorna's popularity grew further, as can be seen in Dunkling's data for the number of girls registered with the name  Lorna in every 10,000 births in England and Wales over the 20th century:  1900 1925  1935  1950  1955  1960  1965  1970  1975  1980  1985  1990    3   20     4    14    20    13    24    21    14    20    30    28 Lorna never managed to make the top 100 during this time in England and Wales, but it did have fluctuating peaks in the late 1960s and late 1980s.  In Scotland, Lorna saw greater popularity across the 20th century. It did not rank in the top 100 at all in 1900, but had moved to #57 by 1950, and had risen to #34 by 1975.  Since the late 1990s, Lorna has been declining in both England, Wales and Scotland.  In 1996, Lorna ranked #161 (274 births) in England and Wales. It dropped below the top 500 in 2006 to #526 (69 births) and at its lowest point of #1177 in 2013 with 29 births.  In Scotland, Lorna has had a birth count of between 6 (#441) and 2 births (#1035) every year since 2005. In 2013, Lorna ranked #816 with 3 births.

Famous Bearers:

Contemporary: * Lorna Hill (1902-1991), British children's author. * Lorna Luft (b.1952), American singer and actress, daughter of Judy Garland. * Lorna Patterson (b.1956), American actress. * Lorna Fitzgerald (1996), British actress. Literature and Other Media: * Lorna Doone, protagonist in Richard Doddridge Blackmore's 1869 novel. * Lorna Dane, alter-ego of the female X-Men member Polaris.

Variants:

Lorne

Pronunciation:

LOR-nə [key]

Possible  Diminutives:

Lola, Lori

Sibling Names:

Cara     Hazel     Clare     Fallon     Tiegan     Zoe  Sean     Craig     Kieran    Cameron    Scott    Curtis

Name Lists:

Cosy Celtic   Names of Roses

 

If you like Lorna you may also like:  Fiona, Leona, Tara, Loren, Bonnie, Orla, Sian, Robyn, Shona, Bronya

 

Thanks to Nicola for requesting this post.