Carmela
Feminine · “Of Mount Carmel”
Carmela is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 24,506 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Carmela is the Italian and Spanish form of a name that goes back to a ridge above the Mediterranean: Mount Carmel, where hermits gathered in the twelfth century and became the Carmelite order. It arrived in American records with Italian and Spanish-speaking families and has never once dropped off them. Three even syllables, the middle one stressed, and it says itself.
How old is the name Carmela?
Carmela first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Carmela alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 11,000 people named Carmela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carmela most popular?
Carmela peaked in 1923, reaching #266 nationally. Today it ranks #1219, 953 places below that high. See the whole 1923 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Karmel to Carmela
The story of Carmela
Mount Carmel is a real ridge running to the sea in northern Israel, and its Hebrew name, karmel, is a word for orchard or fruitful land. Hermits living on that mountain in the twelfth century became the Carmelite order, and devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel — whose feast falls on 16 July — spread through Italy, Spain, Portugal and Malta, where children were named for the title. Carmela is the feminine of Carmelo, and it belongs to the same devotional family as Carmen and Carmelita. It reached the United States with Italian and Spanish-speaking families, which is why it still shows most strongly in New York, New Jersey and California.
Meaning
Of Mount Carmel; the mountain's own name means garden or orchard
Hebrew karmel is a word for a garden, orchard or fruitful land, and it names the coastal ridge in northern Israel. Carmela comes to the name through the Marian title Our Lady of Mount Carmel rather than directly from the Hebrew word.
How the name formed
- Karmel
- Carmelus
- Carmelo
- Carmela
Related forms: Carmela · Carmela · Carmen · Carmel · Karmela · Carmelita
Pronouncing Carmela
kar-MEL-uh
Stress the middle syllable. Italian and Spanish speakers give the last vowel a fuller ah and trill nothing — kar-MEH-lah. Both readings pass easily in English.
Nicknames for Carmela
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1882
- Most girls named
- 1924578 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #266reached in 1923
- Change vs 2022
- +42.0%186 in 2025, from 131
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Carmela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carmela in Italian — same name
- Carmela in Spanish — same name
- Carmen in Spanish — related form
- Carmel in English / Irish — related form
- Karmela in Croatian / Slovene — spelling variant
- Carmelita in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, New Jersey.
Carmelas among us
people named Carmela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,641 born in 2025 was named Carmela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Carmela
- #1219
- Carmela on the 2025 chart
- #606
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Carmela went to 186 girls in 2025, but Carmella, Karmella and Karmela are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 382, which makes it the 606th most-given girls’ name of the year — 613 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 4,208 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 8,641 for Carmela itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Iola test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carmela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Iola climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Iola's path sketches the road Carmela is walking now.
Carmela is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Carmela is headed
Carmela looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 22% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Carmela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carmela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Phonetic in English: people who hear it can spell it, and people who read it can say it.
- Works unchanged in Italian, Spanish and Maltese, and sits beside Carmen and Carmel in the same family of names.
- An unbroken record in American use since the nineteenth century, without ever becoming a name every classroom held.
- Several established short forms already in circulation — Carm, Carmie, Mela — so nothing has to be invented.
- The double-L spelling Carmella also exists, so expect to specify which one you mean fairly often.
- Carmen, Carmel and Carmela are close relatives and get swapped for one another. Not a serious problem, just a recurring correction.
- Living bearers skew heavily toward older generations, so a small Carmela may be introduced to people who last met the name on a grandmother. That gap is exactly what a revival closes.
- American television gave the name one very well-known fictional bearer in Carmela Soprano; some adults will think of her first, though children almost certainly will not.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Carmela to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Carmela? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Carmela
Feminine · #1219 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carmelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,000 people named Carmela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Carmela?
- Carmela is the most-used spelling in US records — 186 of the 382 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Carmella, Karmella and Karmela.
- How popular is the name Carmela in 2025?
- Carmela ranks #1219 among US girl names in 2025, with 186 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carmela?
- About 1 in every 8,641 US girls born in 2025 was named Carmela — 186 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carmela with classmates?
- Carmela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carmela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Fern#1219 · Sama#1219 · Kalea#1222 · Carolyn#1222 · Juana#1222 · Aiyana#1225 · Shay#1225 · Zhamira#1225
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carmela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carmela and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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