Fleming
A surname for someone identified as “the Fleming,” originally meaning a person from Flanders.
The #342 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 3,405 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname comes from the ethnic label for a person from Flanders. In medieval English records it often appears as “le Fleming” or in Latinized form as “Flandrensis,” both meaning someone who came from that region. The literal sense is simply “the Fleming,” not an occupation or nickname in the modern sense.
History
The name was carried into England by people from Flanders, especially after the Norman Conquest, and appears early in medieval records. Over time it became a fixed hereditary surname and spread widely in Britain and later in North America and other English-speaking countries. It has long been established enough to rank among common surnames in Scotland and parts of northern England.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Medieval clerks sometimes Latinized the name as Flandrensis, a reminder that it began as a label for origin rather than a family name in the modern sense.
From the historical record
“FLEMEN. See Fleming. FLEMING. FLE:MMING. A native of Flanders. Many natives of that country joined William the Conqueror in the in- vasion of England. Several persons de- signated Flandrensis occur in Domesday Book ; thus Winemar F. was a tenant in cliief in co. Bucks, and Hugo F. in Bed- fordsliire. Walterus…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom