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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : from Middle High German klem ‘narrow’, ‘tight’, ‘scarce’, hence a nickname for a thin or inhibited person, or alternatively a topographic name for someone living in a narrow, precipitous place, from the Middle High German noun form klemme ‘constriction’.
  • German : short form of the personal name Klemens.

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