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).