Carmen
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "song" or "poem".
Name Census estimates that about 109,578 living Americans carry the first name Carmen. It sits at #416 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Carmen today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carmen births was 1961 (2,622 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carmen. 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 Carmen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
110K
~ 1 in 3,128 Americans
Peak year
1961
2,622 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2024 SSA rank
#416
Tracked since 1881
Census
Carmen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 237,751 people with the first name Carmen, which placed it at #239 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
#239
National first-name rank
People counted
238K
237,751 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
78.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
72.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carmen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carmen is Hispanic at 72.8%. The next largest groups are White (17.6%) and Black (6.2%). 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 Carmen 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 Carmen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino72.8% · 172,977
- White17.6% · 41,838
- Black or African American6.2% · 14,637
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 4,552
- Two or more races1.2% · 2,843
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 904
Gender
Gender distribution for Carmen
Carmen leans heavily female at 89.4% of total registrations, but 16,857 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Carmen as a male name
- Ranked #1,903 in 2024
- 83 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (344 births)
Carmen as a female name
- Ranked #416 in 2024
- 751 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1960 (2,439 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carmen leans strongly female. 228,731 people counted with this name were female (96.2%), compared with 9,027 male bearers (3.8%).
Popularity
Carmen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carmen from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 24,532 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carmen 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 Carmen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 0 | 141 | 141 |
| 1890s | 41 | 419 | 460 |
| 1900s | 143 | 1,040 | 1,183 |
| 1910s | 1,763 | 4,104 | 5,867 |
| 1920s | 3,155 | 9,180 | 12,335 |
| 1930s | 2,283 | 8,569 | 10,852 |
| 1940s | 2,220 | 10,692 | 12,912 |
| 1950s | 2,133 | 18,953 | 21,086 |
| 1960s | 1,647 | 22,885 | 24,532 |
| 1970s | 1,059 | 17,874 | 18,933 |
| 1980s | 812 | 12,622 | 13,434 |
| 1990s | 656 | 11,158 | 11,814 |
| 2000s | 464 | 12,217 | 12,681 |
| 2010s | 271 | 8,552 | 8,823 |
| 2020s | 210 | 3,578 | 3,788 |
Geography
Where Carmens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Carmen, while Rhode Island, Wyoming, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,953 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carmen
The given name Carmen is of Latin origin, derived from the word "carmen" which means "song" or "poem" in Latin. It is believed to have originated in ancient Rome during the classical period.
Carmen was a relatively common name among Roman women, particularly those associated with music, poetry, or the arts. It was also sometimes used as a surname or cognomen in ancient Rome.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Carmen can be found in the works of the Roman poet Ovid, who lived from 43 BC to 17 AD. He mentions a character named Carmen in his famous work "Metamorphoses".
In the Middle Ages, the name Carmen gained popularity among Christians, as it was associated with religious hymns and chants. Several notable figures from this period bore the name, such as Carmen of Arles, a Benedictine abbess who lived in the 8th century.
During the Renaissance, the name Carmen became more widespread across Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Carmen Sylva, the pen name of Elisabeth of Wied, a German princess who was also a prolific writer and poet (1843-1916).
In the 19th century, the name Carmen gained further recognition due to the famous novella "Carmen" by French writer Prosper Mérimée (1845). The titular character, a beautiful and alluring gypsy woman, became an iconic figure in literature and opera.
Another notable figure with the name Carmen was Carmen Laforet, a Spanish novelist who won the prestigious Nadal Prize in 1945 for her novel "Nada". She was born in 1921 and her works explored themes of existentialism and the struggle for identity.
Carmen Miranda, the Brazilian singer, dancer, and actress, was also a famous bearer of this name. Known for her iconic fruit hat and vibrant performances, she popularized Brazilian culture on the international stage and starred in several Hollywood films during the 1940s and 1950s (1909-1955).
Notable bearers
Famous people named Carmen
People
Carmen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carmen 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
Carmen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carmen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 109,578 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carmen 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 3,128 US residents.
Is Carmen a common name?
We classify Carmen as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 158,841 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carmen most popular?
The single biggest year for Carmen was 1961, when 2,622 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carmen is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carmen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 237,751 people with the name Carmen, or 78.72 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #239 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 Carmen 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 Carmen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carmen leans strongly female. 228,731 people counted with this name were female (96.2%), compared with 9,027 male bearers (3.8%). 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 Carmen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carmen is Hispanic at 72.8%. The next largest groups are White (17.6%) and Black (6.2%). 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 Carmen most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Carmen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.8% (172,977 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 Carmen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carmen a female name?
Yes, 89.4% of people registered as Carmen 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 Carmen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carmen 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 Carmen 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 are called Carmen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.