non-names

Unspecific place name with a wonderfully wide-open, spacious, western feel; used for a character in Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland.

The name of a French city famous for its fine lace. Another association: Chantilly cream – a sweetened whipped cream apparently invented there in the 17th century by a chef at the Château de Chantilly. The town probably takes is name from the Gallo-Roman personal name Cantilius, derived from a word for "white".