Can someone clarify Abigail to me ?

In preparation for a steampunk / Victorian times story I read a few Regency / Victorian Times novels. There female Aristocrats mention more than once their Abigail and it seemed that they referred to their Ladies Maid.
Is it just a coincidence and was Abigail just a very popular name. Or was the position called that way ?

You have right. In regency and Victorian times was abigail a synonym for lady's maid.

@ westviking

Thanks for the help.
So far I only struggled with surnames when deciding on them for a character in a story. I know they are very often derived from a job (miller Müller or place Forest(fist leader of the KKK) Wald (not used alone)). It was devastating to my self-image when I looked up my name. The second part indicated my ancient predecessor were warriors(fighters) but in combination with the first part only that the lived on or near a battlefield and were possible gravediggers/robbers. Since there are many people with the name near the city of Osnabrück they might have robbed dead Roman legionaries of their armor and weapons. The remnants of the 17th, 18th and 19th Legion might have found their last resting place there. The battle took place in 9 AD. Since the Germanic tribes didn't write down history we have to rely on Roman sources and it took maybe until the 19th century until such a source was found in an English monastery. In the American Command Magazine #14 Main story Midway was a 'small' article 'The battle that saved English'. Yeah I had to read it twice at least English not England. Since at the end of 3 (14 AD, 15 AD and 16 AD)extremely successful campaigns, which lead to Gaul not being able to replace the losses in horses Rome by Cesar Tiberius declared an end to Roman expansion England didn't share the fate of Gaul later and thus the Latin influence on English was limited. When I researched the battle about 5 years earlier I thought it amazing that it was not the battle of an endless supply of barbarians against3 elite divisions but historians saying the battle started with about 15,000 tribesmen vs up to 20,000 Legionaries and auxiliaries. While the number of Legionaries dropped the number of tribesmen raised in face of the potential loot. If my predecessors were fighters they probably joined at a later stage ;)

I think surnames only became common in western Europe in medieval times. I would say there is little likelihood you surname dates from the Roman era.

Not really sure but ,in Britain, I thought English dated from after the Romans era, 6th century or later? And modern English only developed after the Norman conquest?

@ Smachtai

Surnames developed when first names no longer were enough to differentiate people.
A nice explanation of Nordic names was in the novel 'Red Storm Rising' from Tom Clancy. He explained Gustafsson and Gustafsdottir with son of Gustaf and daughter of Gustaf. No idea if it's true though, but it sounds plausible.

I live in a town of 600,000 people and the phone book has between 10 and 20 entries for my name while in the sparsely populated countryside around Osnabrück it's more common. If you apply Magic, the name here is rare but around Osnabrück it seems uncommon.

I don't think Command Magazine meant the Romans changed English but the influence of Latin might have been much stronger to it's roots while the Germanic influence would have dropped. If England had turned into a Roman province we might have Latin as language in the library and imperatress Flopsybunny would send you fighting wild animals or at least send you into the salt mines if you misbehave on the forum. Think about these tasty snails and frog legs you would worship as food now. Not to mention the healthy garlic added to all meals ;)

In the US in the 19th Century, Irish maids were called "Bridget" or "Biddy", regardless of the maid's name.

That sort of thing was common back in those days.

We called the British Tommies while we were called Jerries in return.

You wonder if the Americans mistook the Second World War for an episode of 'Tom and Jerry' ?

Bad Moody, stay on topic, don't loose focus.

I think jerries was a reference to the helmets the German soldiers wore, which were thought to resemble chamber pots, or jerries.

Initially, at the start of WWI, the Germans were referred to as The Huns. That linked them to the barbarians who sacked Rome. Anything to "other" the enemy.

As for Tommy, British soldiers have been called that for a very long time. One theory is that the name was used as an example name in manuals and forms. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Atkins for more.

It seems to have been quite common, in some Victorian households, to refer to all of a type of servant by the same name, so the family they served wouldn't have to remember a new name every time a member of staff was replaced; so a lady's-maid might be called 'Abigail' or 'Bridget' even though the original bearer of that name had long since moved on, or all footmen might be expected to answer to 'Charles'.

There's an old joke about it, where one titled lady is complaining about having to remember the names of her maids, and the woman she's conversing with suggests doing as she does, and calling them all 'Janet'.

"It saves a lot of trouble, and I'm sure you'd find it an easy name to remember!" she said.

"Very easy, in my case," replied Lady______, "You see, it happens to be MY name!"

In a spanking story, having a number of maids, all answering to the same name, and all wearing the same uniform, could easily lead to a situation where some innocent maid finds herself being punished for a misdemeanour committed by one of the others... Just a suggestion!