Carmen is a unisex given name that represents two names taken as one. Its first root is Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, used as a diminutive nickname for Carmel and Carmelo (respectively), from Hebrew karmel, "God's vineyard." The second origin is from Latin carmen, which means "song," "tune," or "poem" 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". While in English the name is unisex, in Italian, in Spanish, in Romanian and in Portuguese it is generally female.
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 the mother of Jesus on 16 July 1251 by Simon Stock, head of the Carmelite order.
Carmen, ia also an opera by Bizet, about a Spanish gypsy who is killed by a jealous lover
Carmen Argenziano, American actor
Carmen Carrera, American reality television personality, model and burlesque performer
Carmen Basilio, American professional boxer
Carmen Espinoza-Rodriquez, American singer-songwriter
Carmen Electra, American actress
Carmen Fanzone, former Major League Baseball player and accomplished horn player
Carmen Kass, Estonian model
Carmen Labaki, Lebanese / Brazilian movie director and producer
Carmen Luvana, American porn star
Carmen Maxwell, American voice actor
Carmen McRae, American jazz singer
Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian samba singer and film star
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 Suleiman, Egyptian singer
Carmen Cortez, a character from the Spy Kids trilogy.
Carmen Lowell, character from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.
Carmen de la Pica Morales, character on Showtime's lesbian drama, The L Word.
Carmen Sandiego, character from the Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? franchise.
Carmen Lopez (character), a fictional character from the TV series, George Lopez
Carmen, a character from the movie, Happy Feet Two.
Carmen (song), a song by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, taken from her second studio album Born to Die.
Carmen Diaz is an aspiring dancer, singer, and actress in the musical, Fame (musical)
Carmen Pryde, father of X-Men character Kitty Pryde
In Nabokov's Lolita, the name is used by Humbert Humbert as a term of endearment for Lolita: this suggests that he views her as the heroine of Mérimée's Carmen.
Carmela Corleone, wife of Don Vito Corleone, mother of Santino "Sonny" Corleone, Frederico "Fredo" Corleone, Michael "Mikey" Corleone, and Constanzia "Connie" Corleone, and adoptive mother of Tom Hagen in the books and movies based on Mario Puzo's 1969 novel, The Godfather.
Carmela Soprano, leading female character and wife of northern New Jersey mafia boss, Tony Soprano, on HBO's series, The Sopranos.
Cousin Carmela, a character from Wizards of Waverly Place TV special The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex.
Femme fatale
