Can someone clarify Abigail to me ?

I've heard of them being called 'coal scuttle' helmets.

The British often referred to the German forces by the singular name 'Jerry' during World War II, just as Americans referred to the Vietnamese National Liberation Front as 'Charlie' during the Vietnam conflict.

During the second world war, Americans were rather crude in using pejorative racial/ethnic terms like 'Nips' (Japanese) and 'Krauts' (Germans) for enemy servicemen. The Germans referred to their Soviet enemies simply as 'Ivans' or 'Russkies.'

War can be strange at times, hmmmm...?? --C.K.

I finally gave the online dictionary of the university of Munich a chance

in the search window I entered: abigail
result: abigail outdated translation: die Zofe
to countercheck it I entered: zofe
1st translation: maid as in female servant
2d translation: lady's maid (outdated)
3rd translation: abigail (outdated)
the translation as first name for females, that prevented me from using the dictionary didn't show up at all.

Were they the helmets with the big spike? Or am I thinking about the wrong war?

Possibly it was after they got rid of the spike. Though the spike might have been useful to secure it to the ground if a soldier needed the helmet to double as a chamber pot when out in a muddy field.

That's probably the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) which you're thinking about, the Prussians wore those spiked helmets then, and into the twentieth century after Germany had been unified.

It turned out that they were rather inefficient for trench warfare once World War I got underway in 1914, so the Germans replaced them with an early version of their classic 'coal scuttle' helmets.

That's how I understand it anyway... --C.K.

@ Smachtai
Accidently I read an article today, that surname evolved when the black death savaged Europe. That means death not population growth was the reason.

@ CrimsonKidCK
I once read the army report on that war. That was an awkward experience since the characters were 'Sütterlin' or think this way. Read the bible written in Wingdings at least it felt for me like that

The spiked helmet is properly called a Pickelhaube (also Pickelhelm) presumably because you could keep your pickled onions on the spike.

I had to really search to find any reference to Abigail being used as a generic name for Servant. It appears to have been a common name amongst the Puritans after the Reformation and then on into the mid 17th century. So predates the Victorian era by two hundred years.

It might be quite rare. I have to admit, I never came across this use of "Abigail" for a servant in any of my reading of Victorian novels.

I would agree, but the Wikipedia article on Abigail, a wife of David in the Old Testament, in the section 'Generic Use' lists several examples in literature and notes that 'an abigail' (lower case) was a common term for a 'waiting-woman'. We live and learn. I wonder what obscure oddity in the English language Moody will introduce us to next.

Actually we Germans love onions. A German Goulash is preferably pork and the same amount of onions. Women like to cry "Onions, blarghhh" My sister in law won't touch a Mettbrötchen if there is an onion within a mile. Mettbrötchen some call them a German sushi is a bun with spiced minced pork. For a picture simply enter 'German sushi' in google
On birthdays you always have lots of them for your colleagues.

Pickled onions provide a challenge though. Diameter max. 1 inch, I think at it widest part the 'Picklehaube has a diameter of more than an inch. It's like sticking a hole through the rope.