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Flem
How to Pronounce Flem
Pronounced FLEM /ΛflΙm/Medium
Meaning: Flem is a clipped form of Fleming, a surname that marked someone from Flanders, in what is now Belgium. Given to boys as a first name in the early-twentieth-century South, it reads as a short, sturdy family name.Low
Popularity in the U.S. Β· SSA data
U.S. births per year (Social Security Administration, 1880βpresent). Pink marker = peak year.
SSA data updated May 2026. How we source & verify this data.
History & Origin
Flem is a shortening of Fleming, a surname meaning 'man from Flanders', a region famous in the Middle Ages for its cloth trade. In the early-twentieth-century South, such surnames often became first names, and Flem is a spare, one-syllable example, usually carrying a family line.
It was never common, given to only about twenty boys a year around 1927, and it faded by midcentury. A boy named Flem then would be a great-grandfather now.
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Frequently Asked
What does the name Flem mean?
It is a short form of the surname Fleming, meaning 'man from Flanders'.
How do you pronounce Flem?
It is said FLEM /ΛflΙm/, one syllable.
Is Flem a boy or girl name?
Flem is used as a boy's name.
How popular is Flem?
It has always been rare, given to only a handful of boys a year at its early-twentieth-century peak.