What's So French About The French?

THIS is the fourth in an occasional series on How The Openings Got Their Names.
The French Defence (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5) dates back to at least the 17th century, with Greco giving examples of winning with the white and black pieces (both games, assuming they really were games - his opponents are "NN" - saw White play the Advance Variation with 3.e5).
Louis-Charles De Labourdonnais chose the French to win a game in one of his matches against Alexander McDonnell, and many other top players in the 19th century tried it at least once.
Even Paul Morphy, lover of open games, used it to beat James McConnell, who is perhaps best known today for suffering a Philidor's Mate* in another game against a pre-teen Morphy in New Orleans in 1849.
One exception to the French's popularity in the 19th century was Wilhelm Steinitz, who labelled it "the dullest of all openings."
With his first move, 1...e6, Black erects a sort of Maginot Line against a quick attack on Paris and its environs (here represented by the black king and the f7 square). He follows with 2...d5, the counterthrust the real French army was unable to perform in 1940.
But enough with the laboured metaphor: the French Defence is named after a correspondence game between the chess clubs of London and Paris in 1834. What the opening was called before 1834, I have been unable to discover.
Here is an example of the  French Defence that won the 1980 Doncaster & District Chess Association best-game prize.

My first chess trophy

David Tate (grade unknown) - Spanton (140)
Doncaster League
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.c3 c4
The standard response, preventing early white expansion with 7.b4.
7.Be2 Bd7 8.0-0 Nge7 9.Nbd2 f6?
Normal is 9...Na5.
10.Re1
Missing 10.Bxc4!, when 10...dxc4?? loses to 11.Nxc4 followed by 12.Nd6+ etc. Black therefore has to play 10...fxe5, but after 11.dxe5 Ng6 12.Ba2 Ncxe5 13.Nxe5 Nxe5, his position is very loose, eg 14.Qh5+ Ng6 15.c4, with the black king unlikely to find safety.
10...Ng6 11.exf6 gxf6 12.Nf1?!
Defending against Black's coming kingside attack, but this is probably too passive. The engines Stockfish10 and Komodo9 give 12.b3 cxb3 13.Nxb3 with an edge to White.
12...0-0-0 13.Ng3 Be7 14.Bf1 h5 15.Ne2 Bd6 16.Qc2 Rdg8 17.h4
This comes to be Stockfish10's choice, but White is in difficulties whatever he plays - Black has been allowed to build a strong attack on the kingside while White, without making any out-and-out bad moves, has failed to generate counterplay on the other flank.
17...Nce7 18.g3 Nf5 19.Kh1 e5 20.Bh3 e4 21.Nfg1 Qc7 22.Bxf5 Bxf5 23.Be3 Qg7 24.Qd2 Nxh4 25.Bf4 Qg4!
The concentration of forces around White's king is overwhelming.
26.Bxd6 Nxf3 27.Qf4 h4 28.Qxg4 hxg3+! 29.Kg2 Rh2+ 30.Kf1 Nd2#
*The finish of McConnell - Morphy, New Orleans 1849:

22...Qg1+ 23.Rxg1 Nf2#