Name of the Week

A sultry Spanish name with a sacred heritage
and a symbol of feminine capability.

 

Origin:

Carmen is a medieval Spanish form of Carmel, a name adopted in veneration of Maria del Carmen, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  Carmel was the name of a mountain in Israel mentioned in the Old Testament, derived from the Hebrew kerem "garden, vinyard," as the area was famous for its fertility. Its use as a first name is thanks to the Carmelites: a religious order living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the 12th and 13th centuries. They built a monastery which they dedicated to their patroness the Virgin Mary and were known for their Marion devotion. Carmen is also a Latin word (and may have been in the minds of some early Spaniards when they adopted Carmen as a form of Carmel) which means "song, poem, incantation, oracle, prophecy" -- the route of the English word 'charm'. Carmenta was the name of a Roman goddess of childbirth and prophecy -- a key matronal goddess and a part of the legend of the founding of Rome. She had her temple on top of the Capitoline Hill, her own flamen dedicated to her ritual, and her festival -- the Carmentalia -- was chiefly observed by women across two separate days.  Carmenta is seen by some as a figure of early women's liberation. In 215 BC the Senate, in a bid to save materials, forbade women from travelling in carriages and wearing certain clothes. In protest the women banded together and refused to conceive children, keeping their husbands at a distance. The men eventually relented, and when the new law was revoked, the women of Rome founded the temple of Carmenta and established a second day of rites in her honour.

Usage:

Carmen has been used in Spain since the Middle Ages. It was little used outside of Spain however. Much of the use in Britain in the 17th and 18th century was to Spanish migrant families, particularly in the combination Maria del Carmen.  The name was in rare use in the early 19th century, but began to pick up after the 1880s. This can be seen in birth for Carmen in England and Wales: 1840s: 2 births 1850s: 4 births 1860s: 0 births 1870s: 8 births 1880s: 51 births 1890s: 92 births 1900s: 110 births 1910s: 149 births 1920s: 185 births The most obvious cause for the jump in births in the 1880s is the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet, which was first staged in 1875. However, it must also be thanks in some part to Carmen Sylva -- the pen name of Queen Elisabeth of Romania -- as quite a few Carmens born after 1890 were named "Carmen Sylva" (or misspelled as Carmen Sylvia).  Queen Elisabeth was a well respected royal and author, known also for her devoted care for the wounded in Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and the championing of higher education of women in Romania. She is said to have adopted the name Carmen Sylva from the Latin phrase meaning "forest song" in honour of the woodland castle of Monrepos where she spent her childhood.  Queen Victoria said to Romanian-French aristocrat Elena Văcărescu: "Roumania is happy indeed to possess such a Queen as yours is. I never could have believed before meeting her that I was liable to get so rapidly attached to a mere stranger. Everything she says and does is charming; I am so attracted by her goodness, her intelligence — and what a voice she has! She must be idolised in your country, is she not?" In the 20th century, Carmen was still uncommon. It saw a small spike in the 1950s and another in the late 60s before it came into more established use in the 1990s. This can be seen in Dunkling's data for the number of girls registered with the name Carmen in every 10,000 births in England and Wales over the 20th century:  1900  1925  1935  1950  1955  1960  1965  1970  1975  1980  1985  1990     -    -    -     1     1     -     2      1      -      -    4    4 Since 1996, Carmen has sat within the #300-#500 mark in England and Wales having a comfortable yearly birth count of between 60 and 128 births.  In Scotland, Carmen's popularity has fluctuated. It ranked #202 (20 births) in 2005, #193 (22 births) in 2007, #189 (22 births) in 2009 and #265 (14 births) in 2011. In Northern Ireland, Carmen has has between 1 and 4 births per year, putting it below the top 300.  In 2013, Carmen ranked #519 (80 births), #344 (11 births) in Scotland and #569 (1 birth) in Northern Ireland. Carmen remains popular in Spain, having been in their top 20 for the last ten years. In 2013, Carmen ranked #17 in Spain.

Famous Bearers:

History: * Elisabeth of Romania "Carmen Sylva" (1843-1916), poet, author and Queen of Romania. * Carmen Dauset Moreno "Carmencita" (1868-1910), Spanish-style dancer in American pre-vaudeville variety. Believed to be the first woman to appear in a modern motion picture in the US. * Carmen Miranda (1909-1955), Portuguese-Brazilian samba singer and film star. * Carmen McRae (1920-1994), American jazz singer. * Carmen Silvera (1922-2002), British-Canadian comic actress. Contemporary: * Carmen Electra (b.1972), American actress. * Carmen Espinoza-Rodriquez (b.1970), American singer-songwriter. * Carmen Suleiman (b.1994), Egyptian singer. Literature and Other Media: * Carmen (1875), a French opera by Georges Bizet. * Carmen (1845), a novella by Prosper Mérimée and the basis for Bizet's opera. * Carmen (1949), a ballet by Roland Petit to the Bizet music. * Carmen Sandiego, character from the Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? franchise. * Carmen Lowell, character from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. * Carmen (2012), a song by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey.

Variants:

Carmel, Carmina (Italian, Spanish), Karmen (Croation, Slovene), Carmelita, Carmelina, Carmencita

Pronunciation:

KAR-mən [key]

Possible  Diminutives:

Cara, Cari, Mena, Cami

Sibling Names:

Lucia     Alba     Lola     Inez     Stella     Romola  Diego     Hugo    Ruben    Gabriel     Luis     Sonny

Name Lists:

Slickly Continental   Musical Names   Operatic Names   Names of Roses

 

If you like Carmen you may also like:  Marina, Claudia, Mireya, Dolcie, Luna, Monica, Candela, Bianca, Aria, Elena

 

Thanks to Rosamund for requesting this post.