Carmelo
A masculine name meaning "orchard" or "garden enclosed by walls".
Name Census estimates that about 10,626 living Americans carry the first name Carmelo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Carmelo today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carmelo births was 2013 (514 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carmelo. 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 Carmelo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
11K
~ 1 in 32,256 Americans
Peak year
2013
514 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#699
Tracked since 1904
Census
Carmelo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 12,857 people with the first name Carmelo, which placed it at #2,095 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
#2,095
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
12,857 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
64.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carmelo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carmelo is Hispanic at 64.0%. The next largest groups are White (17.5%) and Black (12.1%). 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 Carmelo 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 Carmelo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino64.0% · 8,224
- White17.5% · 2,250
- Black or African American12.1% · 1,560
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 466
- Two or more races2.5% · 315
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 42
Gender
Gender distribution for Carmelo
Out of the 12,794 babies given the name Carmelo since 1880, 100.0% 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.
Carmelo as a male name
- Ranked #699 in 2024
- 386 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2013 (514 births)
Carmelo as a female name
- Ranked #5,069 in 1923
- 5 female births in 1923
- Peak: 1923 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carmelo appears almost entirely male. Of the 12,863 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Carmelo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carmelo from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 3,774 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Carmelo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carmelo 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 Carmelo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carmelos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Carmelo, while Kansas, Idaho, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 307 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carmelo
The given name Carmelo has its origins in the Italian language and culture, and it is derived from the Latin word "carmellus," which means "garden" or "orchard." This name is closely associated with Mount Carmel, a mountain range in northern Israel that is revered by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike.
The earliest recorded use of the name Carmelo can be traced back to the 12th century, when a Catholic religious order known as the Carmelites was established on Mount Carmel. The Carmelites were known for their devotion to the Virgin Mary, and the name Carmelo became a popular choice among members of this order.
One of the earliest and most notable individuals to bear the name Carmelo was Carmelo Sammartino, an Italian-American professional wrestler who was born in 1938 and passed away in 2018. He was widely regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers of his era and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.
Another famous Carmelo was Carmelo Arden Quin, an Irish artist and poet who lived from 1913 to 1986. He was known for his vivid and evocative paintings of the Irish countryside and for his contributions to the Irish literary renaissance of the early 20th century.
In the field of music, Carmelo Zappulla was an Italian-American jazz drummer who was born in 1929 and passed away in 2005. He was renowned for his work with some of the greatest jazz musicians of his time, including Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Carmelo Sario was an Italian filmmaker and screenwriter who lived from 1924 to 2012. He was best known for his collaborations with the legendary director Federico Fellini, and he co-wrote several of Fellini's most acclaimed films, including "La Dolce Vita" and "8½."
Finally, Carmelo Bene was an Italian actor, writer, and director who was born in 1937 and died in 2002. He was a controversial and avant-garde figure in the world of Italian theater and cinema, known for his experimental and provocative works that challenged traditional notions of performance and storytelling.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Carmelo
People
Carmelo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carmelo 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
Carmelo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carmelo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,626 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carmelo 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 32,256 US residents.
Is Carmelo a common name?
We classify Carmelo as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,794 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carmelo most popular?
The single biggest year for Carmelo was 2013, when 514 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carmelo is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carmelo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 12,857 people with the name Carmelo, or 4.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,095 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 Carmelo 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 Carmelo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carmelo appears almost entirely male. Of the 12,863 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Carmelo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carmelo is Hispanic at 64.0%. The next largest groups are White (17.5%) and Black (12.1%). 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 Carmelo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Carmelo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.0% (8,224 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 Carmelo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carmelo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Carmelo 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 Carmelo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carmelo 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 Carmelo 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 share the name Carmelo?
You can see how many people share the name Carmelo on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.