I am from Bellevue, WA which people often mistake for the famed Belvue mental hospital in New York. How did the two names come to be?
The hospital is actually spelled the same as the town. In both cases (and in many other places) the name comes from the French for “beautiful view”. (Belvue is a small town in Kansas, with the name presumably from the same root.)
Tres bon! I’ll just add that it is fairly common for people to take out the silent letters in words appropriated from French. It wouldn’t surprise me if hors d’oeuvre is eventually spelled orderve.