Karmella
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly derived from "Carmen" meaning "song".
Name Census estimates that about 497 living Americans carry the first name Karmella. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Karmella today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karmella births was 2012 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karmella. 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 Karmella with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
497
~ 1 in 689,647 Americans
Peak year
2012
32 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,256
Tracked since 1960
Census
Karmella in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 387 people with the first name Karmella, which placed it at #24,748 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
#24,748
National first-name rank
People counted
387
387 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karmella
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karmella is White at 39.8%. The next largest groups are Black (27.1%) and Hispanic (16.8%). 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 Karmella 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 Karmella at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.8% · 154
- Black or African American27.1% · 105
- Hispanic or Latino16.8% · 65
- Two or more races11.6% · 45
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 6
Popularity
Karmella: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karmella from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 228 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Karmella remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Karmella 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 Karmella during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Karmella
The name Karmella is thought to have its origins in the Latin language, with roots that can be traced back to ancient Rome. It is believed to be a feminine form of the name Karmelus, which itself is derived from the Hebrew word "Kerem-El," meaning "vineyard of God."
In ancient times, the name Karmella was not widely used, as it was primarily associated with religious contexts and monastic orders. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name appears in a medieval manuscript from the 12th century, where it is mentioned as the name of a nun who resided in a Carmelite convent in Italy.
As the centuries passed, the name Karmella slowly gained popularity beyond the confines of religious communities. One notable figure who bore this name was Karmella Guastatori, an Italian painter who lived during the Renaissance period, from 1497 to 1567. Her works, which focused on religious themes and portraiture, can still be found in various churches and museums across Italy.
In the 17th century, a Karmella Martínez was recorded as one of the first female settlers in the Spanish colony of New Mexico, arriving in the region around 1630. Her presence in the historical records highlights the gradual spread of the name as it traveled beyond its European origins.
Another influential figure with the name Karmella was a French writer and philosopher who lived in the 18th century. Karmella de Beauvoir, born in 1723 and died in 1792, was known for her works exploring the concepts of freedom, equality, and the human condition. Her ideas were considered ahead of their time and influenced many subsequent thinkers and intellectuals.
Closer to the modern era, Karmella Genovese, an Italian-American woman born in 1935, gained recognition for her role in a famous psychological experiment conducted in the 1960s. The study, known as the Kitty Genovese experiment, explored the bystander effect and the diffusion of responsibility, and it had a significant impact on the field of social psychology.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Karmella. While the name may have its roots in ancient religious contexts, it has since evolved and gained a broader cultural significance, carried by individuals from various walks of life and across different eras.
People
Karmella + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karmella as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Karmella: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karmella?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 497 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karmella 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 689,647 US residents.
Is Karmella a common name?
We classify Karmella as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 507 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karmella most popular?
The single biggest year for Karmella was 2012, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karmella 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 Karmella in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 387 people with the name Karmella, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,748 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 Karmella 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 Karmella?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karmella leans strongly female. 385 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 5 male bearers (1.3%). 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 Karmella?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karmella is White at 39.8%. The next largest groups are Black (27.1%) and Hispanic (16.8%). 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 Karmella most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Karmella in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.8% (154 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 Karmella in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karmella a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Karmella in the SSA data are female. 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 Karmella still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karmella 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 Karmella 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 Karmella?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Karmella on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.