Pronunciation | kär'mĭn |
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Gender | female |
Name day | 16 July |
Word/name | Hebrew and Latin, respectively |
Meaning | Vineyard of God, Song, Truthful, Poetry |
Region of origin | Italy, Romania, English- and Spanish-speaking countries |
Related names | Carmelita, Carmelito, Carmelina, Carmelino, , Carmela, Carmelo, , Carmencita, Carmina, , Carmo, , Karmen, , Coromin |
The "vineyard of God" origin is from Hebrew karmel -- the "song" origin is from Latin carmen (3rd decl subst); the two origins are unrelated |
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 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". In English, the name is unisex; in Italian, Spanish, Romanian and 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 , head of the Carmelite order.