Carmen

Where Carmen comes from

From Spanish Carmen, cognate with English Carmel. Made famous outside Spain by the opera Carmen (1875) by Georges Bizet.
— Wiktionary's entry for Carmen
  • Spanish
  • Italian
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1881
    First appearance
    #679 among girls, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1918
    Carmen Amaya born
    Spanish flamenco dancer and singer
  3. 1968
    Peak, #141
    2,270 babies named Carmen — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1972
    Carmen Electra born
    American actress, model, and singer
  5. 1993
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #254.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Spanish
  • A male given name from Italian.
Namesakes
  • Carmen Electra · American actress, model, and singer, born 1972
  • Carmen Amaya · Spanish flamenco dancer and singer, 1918–1963
  • Carmen Kass · Estonian model and actress, born 1978
  • Carmen Pereira · Guinea-Bissauan politician, 1936–2016
  • Carmen Luvana · Puerto Rican pornographic actress, born 1981

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.