Lemm
surname · Latin script
Meaning: hypocoristic of an Old English given name; first attested Geoffrey Lem 1218 AssL
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈɫɛm/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Lemm is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 32K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 362K
- CHSwitzerland1 in 105K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 187 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 32K (inferred from the name graph)
≈2,500 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
hypocoristic of an Old English given name; first attested Geoffrey Lem 1218 AssL
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Where in the world(measured from records)
Lemm counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | ≈2,500 est. | ≈1 in 32K | — | Lemm | 103 |
| US United States | 918 | 1 in 362K | 918 | Lemm | 187 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈280 est. | ≈1 in 239K | — | Lemm | 78 |
| IT Italy | ≈170 est. | ≈1 in 373K | — | Lemm | 5 |
| AU Australia | ≈150 est. | ≈1 in 170K | — | Lemm | 43 |
| NL Netherlands | 122 | 1 in 142K | 122 | Lemm | 13 |
| CH Switzerland | 80 | 1 in 105K | 80 | Lemm | 10 |
| SG Singapore | ≈29 est. | ≈1 in 213K | — | Lemm | 2 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Lemm is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
from Lemme, a pet form of an Old English personal name, either Leodrrmr or Leopnxr (see Lemmer).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
from a short form of Lambert.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In sga, first-person singular of la
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Breton, sharp
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Breton, pointu, acéré, aigu, coupant, taillant; repassage, affûtage
as a wordDeshayes, Dictionnaire étymologique du breton (2003)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Burchard Friedrich von Lemmb. 1802EEBaltic German astronomer and military personnel (1802-1872)
- Daniel Burchard von Lemmb. 1845RUBaltic German clergyman (1845-1924)
- Oscar Leberecht von Lemmb. 1856RURussian Egyptologist (1856–1918)
- Alfred Lemmb. 1889DEGerman writer (1889–1918)
- Heinz-Georg Lemmb. 1919DEGerman general (1919–1994)
- Robert Lemmb. 1945NLDutch translator
- Vanessa Lemmb. 1950DEphilosopher
- Christiane Lemmb. 1953DEGerman actress
- Romano Lemmb. 1984CHSwiss ice hockey player
- Rutger Lemmb. 1985NLDutch cabaret artist
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 21 sources across 10 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 918 | #26,549 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 898 | #25,754 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 883 | #28,674 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 122 | #16,203 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 80 | #13,092 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Lemm mean, and where does it come from?
- hypocoristic of an Old English given name; first attested Geoffrey Lem 1218 AssL Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
- How do you pronounce Lemm?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈɫɛm/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Lemm have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 2.5 thousand people named Lemm in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled lemm.
- How common is the name Lemm?
- In the United States, the national register counted 918 people named Lemm in 2010, about 1 in 362 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Lemm?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/lemmThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Lemm”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.