Carmen Malave

(female) (Spanish) form of Carmel, altered by folk etymology to the form of the Latin word carmen ‘song’. It is now sometimes found as a given name in the English-speaking world, in spite of, or perhaps because of, its association with the tragic romantic heroine of Bizet's opera Carmen (1875), based on a short story by Prosper Mérimée.

Spanish: probably a shortened form of Basque Zumalabe, Zumalave, a topographic name composed of the elements zume ‘pasture’ + labe ‘oven’.