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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : nickname from an inflected form of Middle High German klem ‘narrow’, ‘tight’, ‘scarce’, or a topographic name klemme ‘constriction’, the suffix -er denoting an inhabitant (see Klem 1).
  • (in northern Germany) occupational name for someone who worked with clay (i.e someone who applied the daub infill on timber-framed houses), Middle High German klemer.
  • in various German dialects the word (an agent derivative of klemmen ‘to pinch, squeeze, or claw’) denotes a bird of prey and hence an uncouth young woman or a penny pincher (Tyrol).

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