Carmela
A Hebrew name meaning "vineyard of God", carried into Polish through its Italian and Spanish forms. Only about 60 women here hold it, so most Poles have never met one.
Carmela Pronunciation
Carmela is pronounced tsahr-ME-lah (/t͡sarˈmɛla/).
What Carmela means
Where Carmela comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Carmela reaches back to the Hebrew Karmel, the name of a mountain above the Israeli coast. The word joins kerem, vineyard, with El, God. Its meaning stays close to the soil: garden, vineyard of God.
The name traveled through Italy and Spain on the strength of a devotion. Our Lady of Mount Carmel, known in Italian as the Madonna del Carmine, brought Carmela into Catholic homes that kept her feast on the sixteenth of July. In Naples and Sicily it became common. Spanish families favored it too, and it settled in as a warm, southern classic.
In a Polish class register, Carmela sits among the Zofias and Julias as a clear import. It signals a family with Italian or Spanish ties, or a taste for the Mediterranean. The Hebrew root holds under all of it. Vineyard of God.
How many people are named Carmela
1 in 375731 women in Poland is named Carmela. 60 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #4746 among female names.
Carmela's popularity over time
2 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1494 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024.
Carmela as a middle name
Carmela is a first name for 60 women in Poland and a middle name for another 34, a 64/36 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1187th, between Anneliese (34) and Celia (34).
-
#1185 Amaya34
-
#1186 Anneliese34
-
#1187 Carmela34
-
#1188 Celia34
-
#1189 Denisa34