# Carmen (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/carmen/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys and girls |
| Origin | Spanish |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkɑː(ɹ)mən/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 159,756 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 16,961 / 142,795 (89% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 2,331, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Spanish Carmen, cognate with English Carmel. Made famous outside Spain by the opera Carmen (1875) by Georges Bizet.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 919 | 349 |
| 2012 | 943 | 332 |
| 2013 | 881 | 358 |
| 2014 | 855 | 383 |
| 2015 | 859 | 382 |
| 2016 | 830 | 400 |
| 2017 | 776 | 409 |
| 2018 | 733 | 431 |
| 2019 | 743 | 428 |
| 2020 | 708 | 433 |
| 2021 | 716 | 437 |
| 2022 | 696 | 453 |
| 2023 | 712 | 435 |
| 2024 | 751 | 417 |
| 2025 | 798 | 389 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 38 | 3,004 |
| 2012 | 28 | 3,729 |
| 2013 | 26 | 3,878 |
| 2014 | 23 | 4,281 |
| 2015 | 23 | 4,313 |
| 2016 | 32 | 3,455 |
| 2017 | 17 | 5,326 |
| 2018 | 18 | 5,140 |
| 2019 | 29 | 3,732 |
| 2020 | 20 | 4,728 |
| 2021 | 26 | 4,033 |
| 2022 | 30 | 3,703 |
| 2023 | 51 | 2,586 |
| 2024 | 83 | 1,906 |
| 2025 | 104 | 1,624 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 101 | 427 |
| 2012 | 117 | 397 |
| 2013 | 80 | 519 |
| 2014 | 71 | 582 |
| 2015 | 68 | 609 |
| 2016 | 53 | 744 |
| 2017 | 52 | 764 |
| 2018 | 57 | 701 |
| 2019 | 64 | 616 |
| 2020 | 42 | 853 |
| 2021 | 49 | 755 |
| 2022 | 37 | 940 |
| 2023 | 42 | 851 |
| 2024 | 48 | 776 |
| 2025 | 46 | 792 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 3 | 4,991 |
| 2024 | 10 | 2,263 |
| 2025 | 13 | 1,897 |

## In other languages

- Bulgarian: Ка́рмен
- Catalan: Carme
- Chinese: 卡門 /卡门
- Esperanto: Karmena
- French: Carmen
- Greek: Κάρμεν
- Japanese: カルメン
- Russian: Кармен

## People named Carmen

- Carmen Electra, American actress, model, and singer
- Carmen Kass, Estonian model and actress (born 1978)
- Carmen Ejogo, British actress
- Carmen McRae, American jazz musician and actress (1922-1994)
- Carmen Argenziano, actor from the United States (1943-2019)
- Carmen Martín, almeriar eskubaloiko jokalaria
- Carmen Villalobos, Colombian actress
- Carmen Zapata, American actress (1927-2014)
- Carmen Dell'Orefice, American model, actress
- Carmen Basilio, American boxer (1927–2012)
- Carmen Reinhart, American economist
- Carmen Hart, American pornographic actress

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.