Intriguing!

[Olde Crone Holden]

I have read that the Haut Mond had given names for their servants, no matter what their real names were.

Daisy was always a parlourmaid, John would be a valet and so on - saved the gentry from having to remember names when staff changed.

OC

[Roger in Sussex]

I can't quite place it, but seem to remember a fictional case where Marguerite the maid was told by her mistress that she would be known as Daisy! Might have been a play.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Well it wouldn't be the first time a servant had to agree to their name being
altered or changed to one their employer considered more fitting!

I know of a footman in the 1930's who was banned from being called by his first name (Charles) because it was considered too grand and gave the wrong impression. He had to be known as "Billy" - his middle name was William.

[Little Nell]

I've been sitting in the sun too long! Rose Hart changed her name to Rosella not Rosina.
But I wonder if she disliked having a name like a servant's?

Interestingly, her daughter (husband's maternal grandmother) always said she could never remember if her mother's name was Rosanna, Rosella or Rosina!! And Rose herself had aunts, cousins and great-aunts called Rosetta.

[Little Nell]

Husband's Jewish gt grandmother was born as Rose Hart. But from her marriage onwards, she is recorded as Rosina.

Just going back over files, in 1891 the family have a servant called Rosina Walker. But by 1901 (after gt grandmother's marriage 1898) she is Rose Walker.

Did Rose steal her name? lol!