Carmen (given name)
Carmen is a given name with two different origins. Its first root is Spanish and Italian and used as a nickname for Carmel and Carmelo (respectively), from Hebrew karmel, "God's vineyard".,[1] which is the name of a mountain range in northern Israel. The second origin is from Latin carmen, which means "ode" or "poem" ("Patrium Carmen": ode to the fatherland) and is also the root of the English word "charm". The name of the Roman goddess Carmenta based on this root comes from the purely Latin origin, as is the fragment of archaic Latin known as "Carmen Saliare". In English, the name is unisex; in Spanish, Portuguese (Carmo), Catalan (Carme), French (Carme) and Romanian it is generally female, though in Italian it is frequently male.
Pronunciation | kär'mĭn |
---|---|
Gender | Male or female |
Name day | 16 July |
Origin | |
Word/name | Hebrew and Latin, respectively |
Meaning | Song, Truthful, Poetry |
Region of origin | Italy, Romania, English- and Spanish-speaking countries |
Other names | |
Related names | Carmelita, Carmella, Carmela, Carmelo, Carmel, Carmine, Carme, Carmina, Karmen, Karmin |
The "vineyard of God" origin is from Hebrew karmel—the "song" origin is from Latin carmen (3rd decl subst); the two origins are unrelated. |
Spanish name
As a Spanish given name, it is usually part of the devotional compound names María del Carmen, Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Our Lady of Carmen), or Virgen del Carmen (in English, Our Lady of Mount Carmel), stemming from the tradition of the vision of Mary, mother of Jesus on 16 July 1251 by Simon Stock, head of the Carmelite order.
People
- Carmen Argenziano, American actor
- Carmen Basilio, American professional boxer
- Carmen Bernand, French historian and Latin Americanist
- Carmen Calisto, former Ecuadorian first lady
- Carmen Carrera, American reality television personality, model and burlesque performer
- Carmen Conde, Spanish poet
- Carmen Dragon, American conductor, composer and arranger
- Carmen Espinoza-Rodriquez, American singer-songwriter
- Carmen Ejogo, British actress and singer
- Carmen Electra, American actress
- Carmen Fanzone, former Major League Baseball player and horn player
- Carmen Garayalde (1913–2002), Uruguayan teacher, exiled political activist, and artist
- Carmen Kass, Estonian supermodel
- Carmen Labaki, Lebanese / Brazilian movie director and producer
- Carmen Laforet, Spanish author
- Carmen Maciariello, American college basketball coach
- Carmen Martín Gaite, Spanish author
- Carmen Maura, Spanish actress
- Carmen McRae, American jazz singer
- Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian samba singer and film star
- Carmen Nebel, German television presenter
- Carmen Radu, former CEO of Eximbank Romania
- Carmen Rinke, Canadian boxer
- Carmen Rupe, New Zealand-Australian LGBT activist and drag-queen (1936–2011)
- Carmen Salvino, American professional bowler
- Carmen Scardine, American football
- Carmen Silva, Brazilian actress
- Carmen Sylva, pen name of Elisabeth of Wied, queen of Romania.
- Carmen Suleiman, Egyptian singer
- Carmen Vidal, Spanish cosmetologist
Fictional characters with the name Carmen
- Carmen, the main character in Prosper Mérimée's novella Carmen (1845), which is the basis for Georges Bizet's opera Carmen
- Carmen (Lana Del Rey song), titular character in a song by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, taken from her second studio album Born to Die
- Carmen, a character from the movie, Happy Feet Two
- Carmen, a character from the 2002 Indonesian drama movie, Ada Apa Dengan Cinta.
- Carmen, Humbert Humbert's term of endearment for the titular character of Nabokov's Lolita
- Carmen Cortez, a character from the Spy Kids trilogy
- Carmen de la Pica Morales, character on Showtime's lesbian drama, The L Word
- Carmen Diaz is an aspiring dancer, singer, and actress in the musical, Fame (musical)
- Carmen Lopez (character), a fictional character from the TV series, George Lopez
- Carmen Lowell, character from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series
- Carmen Pryde, father of X-Men character Kitty Pryde
- Carmen Sandiego, character from the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? franchise
- Carmen, supporting character of Totally Spies! in which she is the mother of super spy Alex
- Carmen, a villager in the Nintendo video game Animal Crossing
Fictional characters with the name Carmela
- Carmela Corleone, the wife of Don Vito Corleone in the books and movies based on Mario Puzo's novel, The Godfather (1969)
- Carmela Soprano, leading female character on HBO's series, The Sopranos
- Cousin Carmela, a character from Wizards of Waverly Place and its TV special The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex
See also
- Carmin (disambiguation), includes list of people with name Carmin
References
- Albaigès, Josep M.; Olivart, J. M. A. (1993). Diccionario de nombres de personas (in Spanish). Universitat de Barcelona. p. 69. ISBN 978-84-475-0264-6. Retrieved 20 September 2018.