Carmela is the Italian and Spanish form of Carmel — from the Hebrew *karmel* ("garden, orchard, fruitful place") — referring to Mount Carmel in Israel, the sacred mountain of the prophet Elijah. **A top-200 US baby name from 1907 to 1942**. **Carmela Soprano** — **wife of mob boss Tony Soprano in HBO's *The Sopranos* (1999-2007), played by Edie Falco; widely considered among the greatest TV characters of all time, alongside her husband; she earned Falco **three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (1999, 2001, 2003) and two Golden Globe Awards** — making her the most-decorated dramatic-lead actress in any single TV role in modern history**. **The character's interior arc — a Catholic wife and mother who slowly reckons with the moral cost of her husband's empire — has become a standard case study in television writing programs**. ***The Sopranos* is on the Library of Congress National Recording Registry (2018) and ranks #1 on *Rolling Stone*'s 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time**. **Carmela Pagliuca** — Italian-American businesswoman. **Carmela Corren** (1938-2022) — Israeli singer; 1963 Eurovision Song Contest finalist for Austria. **Carmela Soprano (the character)** was based on the Italian-American matriarchs of New Jersey — show creator David Chase modeled her on his own mother and aunts.
Featured throughout American culture as the archetypal Italian-American matriarch.
Carmela reduces to two — the number of Sopranos Golden Globes.