Carnuel is a census-designated place (CDP) in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States.

Robert Hixson Julyan reports that name of the community, which has been spelled both Carnuel and Carnué, likely derives from the Tiwa word for "badger place.

The town was created in 1763 to defend Albuquerque from the raids of Comanche, Kiowa, and Plains Apache American Indians.

The town is located at the mouth of Tijeras Canyon, a strategic and natural corridor between the hostile Indians of the Great Plains and the Spanish settlements of the Rio Grande valley.

[7] Apache raiders killed several people in the area and the survivors abandoned the settlement in 1771.

By that time New Mexico had made peace with the Comanche and the threat to the eastern frontiers of the colony had decreased, making the settlement feasible.

Also within the original area of the land grant are the village of Tijeras and Cedar Crest CDP (census designated place).