- "¡Ay Carmela!" is a Republican song from the Spanish Civil War. - Carmela is the titular character in the 1990 Spanish film "¡Ay Carmela!" The character and movie are named after the song.
Where I live Carmela is strongly used in the older generations of those coming from an Italian background. My own family has two who were born in the 1920s-1930s and I know of one born in the sixties.
It's a beautiful name. It's also my mother's name. She was named after her grandmother. My mother really stood out at school. She was the only Carmela in an ocean of Lisas and Jennifers.
A nickname for this--as well as related names--is "Carmilla", from Sheridan Le Fanu's vampire story by the same name. She was the vampire and had lesbian tendencies, though this was the 19th century and Le Fanu was a man. It's the tale Bram Stoker's "Dracula" was inspired by.
As far as I could find, Karmel is not a garden in Hebrew as it is written on your site. The first three letters in Hebrew (C R M), if pronounced differently (that is, using different vowels under the letters) means Vineyard. L means to H is often wrtitten to refer to GOD So Carmela could be a vineyard for/to GOD It is a common female name especially amongst the Yemenite and Iraqi Jews.