Family name origins & meanings
- Polish and Sorbian : from a short form of the personal name Kliment, Klemens, from the Latin personal name Clemens (see Clement).
- Perhaps also a variant of South German Klimm, a topographic name from Middle High German klimme ‘height’, ‘hill’.
- nickname for a fearful person, from Middle High German klimpfen ‘to press’, ‘to oppress’.