"acolyte" (young cult officiant);[1] a Latin cognomen
Camilla or Camila is a feminine given name. It originates as the feminine of camillus, a term for a youth serving as acolyte in the ritual of ancient Roman religion, which may be of Etruscan origin.[1]Hypocorisms of the name include Milly, Millie, and Milla.
The name Camillo is the Italian male version of Camilla.
Camillus came to be used as a cognomen in Rome, and Camilla would be the feminine form of this cognomen from a period when cognomina had become hereditary clan names.
The most notable bearer of this name in Roman history is Marcus Furius Camillus (c. 446 – 365 BC), who according to Livy and Plutarch, triumphed four times, was five times dictator, and was honoured with the title of "Second Founder of Rome".
In the Aeneid, Camilla was the name of a queen of the Volsci who was given as a servant to the goddess Diana and raised as a "warrior virgin" of the Amazon type.
In the English-speaking world, the name was popularized by Fanny Burney's novel Camilla of 1796. The given names Kamilla and Kamila are variations of the given name Camilla. Both Kamila and Kamilla have roots in Latin, Slavic, Arabic, and South Asian languages and today remain popular in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Italy. The name Kamila in Arabic means perfect derived from the Arabic root Kamil (كامل and كميل) and is a variation on the Sanskrit name Kamala, meaning lotus, a common name in Indian culture[2][3][4]
The name, with the spelling Camila, has been particularly popular among Spanish speakers.[5][6] Camila was among the five most popular names for Hispanic newborn girls in the American state of Virginia in 2022 and again in 2023.[7][8]
This page or section lists people that share the same given name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.