Fleming
A masculine given name of English origin, meaning "one who comes from Flanders".
Name Census estimates that about 315 living Americans carry the first name Fleming. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Fleming today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fleming births was 1917 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fleming. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Fleming is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Flemings were born before 1966.
People living today
315
~ 1 in 1,088,109 Americans
Peak year
1917
27 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
2006 SSA rank
#12,657
Tracked since 1880
Popularity
Fleming: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Fleming from the 1880s through to the 2000s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 180 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Fleming by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Fleming during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Flemings live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Fleming, while North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Fleming
The given name Fleming has its origins in the Low German language spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands during the Middle Ages. It is derived from the word "Vlaming," which referred to someone from Flanders, a region that encompasses parts of modern-day Belgium, Netherlands, and France. The name likely emerged as a descriptive term for people who hailed from this area.
In its earliest recorded forms, the name appeared as "Flamingus" in Latin texts dating back to the 11th century. It was also spelled as "Flemmyng" or "Flemmynge" in Middle English documents from the 13th and 14th centuries, reflecting the linguistic evolution of the name over time.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the given name Fleming was Fleming I, Count of Vianden, a nobleman who lived in the 11th century and ruled over the County of Vianden in modern-day Luxembourg. Another notable bearer of the name was Jacobus Flemingus, a Flemish theologian and philosopher from the 15th century, who taught at the University of Leuven.
In the 16th century, the name gained prominence with the English explorer and navigator Sir Sandys Fleming, who was born around 1540 and played a significant role in the early colonization efforts of the British Empire. Another important figure was Robert Fleming, a Scottish Presbyterian minister and theologian born in 1630, who made significant contributions to the development of Calvinist doctrine in Scotland.
Moving into the 18th century, Alexander Fleming, the famous Scottish bacteriologist and Nobel Prize winner, was born in 1881. He is best known for his discovery of penicillin, which revolutionized modern medicine and saved countless lives. Ian Fleming, the English author and creator of the iconic fictional character James Bond, was born in 1908 and is another famous bearer of the name.
Throughout history, the given name Fleming has been associated with individuals from various walks of life, including explorers, scholars, theologians, and authors, reflecting the diverse cultural and geographical roots of the name.
People
Fleming + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fleming as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Fleming: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fleming?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 315 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fleming going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,088,109 US residents.
Is Fleming a common name?
We classify Fleming as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,017 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fleming most popular?
The single biggest year for Fleming was 1917, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fleming is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Fleming a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fleming in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.