CARMEN PADILLA

(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: habitational name from any of the various minor places, for example in the provinces of Burgos, Guadalajara, and Valladolid, named from Spanish padilla ‘frying pan’, ‘breadpan’ (Latin patella, a diminutive of patina ‘shallow dish’), a word which was commonly used in the topographical sense of a gentle depression.