For surnames (real), I've been thinking one-syllable, no-nonsense punches: Banks, Hunt, Crewe, Rye...
What I'm envisioning so far is that she's not formally educated, but pretty much self-taught literacy based on a limited collection of book (possibly stolen, still working out those details), plays in particular: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Dickens, etc. Maybe
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Definitely the Bible. So she'd know about famous English writers, but not much about Classical mythology or history.
The persona is "half French and grew up on the Continent," so I've been looking at French surnames for the pseudonym (if it's even part of the name she gives out, and not just "Madame [first name]").
I didn't realize that about diminutives as real names in the 19th century, that being a common thing. I thought that was more modern.
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