Carmello
Italian name possibly meaning "cultivator" or "embellisher of loveliness".
Name Census estimates that about 1,791 living Americans carry the first name Carmello. It is a predominantly male name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Carmello today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carmello births was 2011 (147 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carmello. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Carmello with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Carmello is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 191,376 Americans
Peak year
2011
147 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,392
Tracked since 1913
Census
Carmello in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,570 people with the first name Carmello, which placed it at #9,029 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#9,029
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,570 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carmello
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carmello is Black at 46.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.5%) and White (13.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Carmello described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Carmello at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.9% · 736
- Hispanic or Latino29.5% · 463
- White13.6% · 213
- Two or more races8.0% · 125
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 16
Gender
Gender distribution for Carmello
Out of the 2,131 babies given the name Carmello since 1880, 99.0% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Carmello as a male name
- Ranked #2,392 in 2024
- 58 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (147 births)
Carmello as a female name
- Ranked #4,109 in 1930
- 6 female births in 1930
- Peak: 1930 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carmello leans strongly male. 1,531 people counted with this name were male (97.5%), compared with 39 female bearers (2.5%).
Popularity
Carmello: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carmello from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 895 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carmello by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Carmello during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carmellos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. New York, Ohio, Florida recorded the most babies named Carmello, while Missouri, Minnesota, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 49 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carmello
The name Carmello is derived from the Latin name Carmellus, which itself originates from the Hebrew word "Karmel," meaning "garden" or "orchard." This name is closely associated with Mount Carmel, a coastal mountain range in northern Israel, which is mentioned in the Bible as a place of natural beauty and fertility.
The earliest known historical figure with the name Carmello was Carmello Bertinetti, an Italian mathematician and astronomer who lived from 1551 to 1629. He is best known for his work on optics and his contributions to the development of the telescope.
Another notable bearer of this name was Carmello Cappello, an Italian painter who lived from 1625 to 1688. He was a prominent member of the Baroque art movement and is particularly renowned for his religious paintings and frescoes adorning churches throughout Italy.
In the 18th century, Carmello Sammaritano was a Sicilian botanist and naturalist who made significant contributions to the study of plant life in his native region. He lived from 1701 to 1775 and is credited with describing and cataloging numerous plant species found in Sicily.
Carmello Zappulla, an Italian composer and musician, lived from 1859 to 1942. He was a prolific writer of operas, symphonies, and chamber music, and his works were widely performed throughout Europe during his lifetime.
In more recent history, Carmello Ardingo was an Italian politician and journalist who lived from 1903 to 1976. He served as a member of the Italian Parliament and was a vocal advocate for workers' rights and social justice.
While the name Carmello has its roots in Latin and Hebrew, it has been adopted and used across various cultures and regions over the centuries. Despite its ancient origins, the name has endured and continues to be bestowed upon children to this day, carrying with it a rich history and cultural significance.
People
Carmello + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carmello as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Carmello: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carmello?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,791 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carmello going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 191,376 US residents.
Is Carmello a common name?
We classify Carmello as "Rare". It ranks above 93.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,131 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carmello most popular?
The single biggest year for Carmello was 2011, when 147 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carmello is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carmello in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,570 people with the name Carmello, or 0.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,029 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Carmello in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Carmello?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carmello leans strongly male. 1,531 people counted with this name were male (97.5%), compared with 39 female bearers (2.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Carmello?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carmello is Black at 46.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.5%) and White (13.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Carmello most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Carmello in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.9% (736 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Carmello in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carmello a male name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Carmello in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Carmello still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carmello in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Carmello can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Carmello?
Find out how many people have the name Carmello on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.