Carmel - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 2 syll. car-mel, ca-rm-el ] The girl name Carmel is also used as a boy name, though the use for girls is more popular. It is pronounced KaaRMEHL or KAARMahL ^KEY. Carmel's origin is Hebrew, and its use, English and Hebrew. Biblical name from the word karmel with the meaning 'fruit garden, fruitful land'. The name is derived from the Spanish title, Virgin Mary Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel and the West Bank; typical of ancient Canaanite culture, as a high place it had been considered sacred since the 15th century BC. The Book of Kings in the Bible recorded that Elijah rebuilt an altar to Yahweh on the mountain, which was also famous for its fruitfulness. The mountain is also known for the Carmelite order of nuns founded there. The largely Catholic name has been adopted by English speakers since the late 19th century.

The name Carmel is widely used; it has 35 forms that are used in both English and foreign languages. English forms of the name include Carmaletta, Carmalit, Carmalita, Carmalla, Carmarit, Carmeli, Carmelit, Carmelitha, Carmelitia, Carmella, Carmellia, Carmellita, Carmesa, Carmesha, Carmia, Carmie, Carmiel, Carmill, Carmilla, Carmisha, Carmy, Karmela, Karmeli, Karmi, Karmia, Karmiel, and Lita (used in Italian and Spanish as well). Other English forms include the pet forms Carma (used in Hebrew as well) and Carmi, and the spelling variants Carmelle and Karmel. Forms of Carmel used in foreign languages include the Italian and Spanish Carmela, the Spanish Carmelia, and the German, Italian, and Spanish Carmelina. The pet form Carmelita (Italian and Spanish) is another foreign variant.

See also the related form, the English, Romanian, and Spanish Carmen.

Carmel is an uncommon baby girl name. At the modest height of its usage in 1914, 0.012% of baby girls were named Carmel. It had a ranking of #588 then. The baby name has steeply dropped in popularity since then, and is of only irregular use now. In 2008, within the family of girl names directly related to Carmel, the English, Romanian, and Spanish Carmen was the most frequently used. In the last century Carmel has mainly been a girl name. There were 70% more girls than boys who were named Carmel in 1918.

Baby names that sound like Carmel include the English Karmel, the English Carmill, the German Cornell, the English Cornelle, the English Carmalla, the Italian and Spanish Carmela, the English Carmeli, the English Carmella, the English Carmiel, the English Carmilla, the Hebrew Carniela, the English Cornela, the Dutch, English, German, Italian, and Romanian Cornelia, the French Cornelie, the English Cornella, the French Cornélie, the English Karmela, the English Karmeli, the English Karmiel, and the Hebrew Karniela.

---

Name Popularity Trend + Variant Popularity ChartVariant Popularity Trend + Variant Popularity ChartUnisex Popularity Trend + Unisex Comparison ChartSound-Like Popularity Trend + Sound-Like Comparison Chart