This is a Calville blanc d'Hiver apple. Translated from French, it means "White winter calville", although it is sometimes translated as "Snow Calville".
"White" comes from the pale white skin, and "winter" comes from the fact that this apple was harvested late in the season and stored very well, meaning it was a source of fresh fruit well into the winter months before refrigeration and modern agriculture and shipping existed.
The "Calville" part is weird though. All sources indicate that this name originates in the early 1600s and was named after the small French town of Calleville, which in modern times has only about 500 people.
But the apple itself has over 30 names, including the Taponne, and my personal favorite, The Admirable Blanche, which sounds like a children's cartoon superhero more than an apple. It may have even been name-checked by Pliny the Elder, who called it the Orthomastia and described it as "Like a breast", but if my tits were that lumpy I'd be getting them checked out.
So with so many great names on tap, one wonders why a mouthful like Calville blanc d'hiver stuck when "boob apple" didn't. The answer possibly lies in medieval European politics and nepotism.
That guy up there is Henry d'Harcourt. His family had a castle just outside of Calleville. It still exists to this day and you can visit it. At the age of 18, our boy Henry became an officer in the French army, because the Harcourts were a very noble family and medieval France ran on nepotism the way New Englanders run on Dunkin Donuts.
Well, surprisingly, he was actually good at his job and became a lieutenant general after 20 years, when King Louis XIV called him away for a special job. He was to become the extraordinary ambassador to Spain. History doesn't detail what exactly he did, but when the childless Charles II died, he named Phillip of Anjou, i.e. King Louis's grandson, the heir to the throne. So whatever he did, he did it right.
For his efforts, King Louis made our boy Henry a duke, and also the Marshall of France, which was convenient, because that little move kicked off the war of Spanish Succession, a 15 year long World War Zero, so to speak.
So is it possible that the Calville name stuck because it happened to be in the backyard of France's newest duke, accomplished diplomat, and kickass general? Or was it because people didn't want to name an apple after an Aquabats reject or an inaccurate titty?
I dunno