Lana Gardner, née Lynley (Jean Smart) is an old high school classmate of Frasier's, on whom both Frasier and Niles had crushes during high school. Frasier and Lana meet again as adults, and have a brief romantic relationship while Lana is estranged from her husband, Bob Gardner. Frasier calls this off owing to Lana's immensely aggressive personality. They later become friends. Lana is the mother of Kirby, and has at least one other child. In Jean Smart's first appearance as this character, she was known as Lorna Lynley—the character's name was later changed to Lana to avoid referring to a real person by that name.[19]
This name change is listed among the character and story-telling errors contained in the Frasier series episodes, listed here .