Family name origins & meanings
- Italian : from carnevale ‘festival’ (from carnelevare ‘fast’, literally ‘removal of meat’; it was the normal practice to have a riotous carnival before a period of solemn fast such as Lent, and this gradually acquired a greater significance than the fast itself and usurped the meaning of the word). This was sometimes used as a personal name (Italian Varnevale, also Carlevario; Latin Carnelevarius), probably bestowed on someone born at the time of a carnival, or a nickname for someone with a particularly festive spirit.