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
Census
Fleming in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 460 people with the first name Fleming, which placed it at #21,867 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#21,867
National first-name rank
People counted
460
460 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Fleming
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fleming is White at 49.6%. The next largest groups are Black (37.8%) and Hispanic (5.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Fleming described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Fleming at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.6% · 228
- Black or African American37.8% · 174
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 23
- Two or more races3.5% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 5
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.
How common was Fleming in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 460 people with the name Fleming, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,867 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Fleming in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Fleming?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Fleming leans strongly male. 389 people counted with this name were male (84.6%), compared with 71 female bearers (15.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Fleming?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fleming is White at 49.6%. The next largest groups are Black (37.8%) and Hispanic (5.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Fleming most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Fleming in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.6% (228 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Fleming in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Fleming still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Fleming in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Fleming can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people have the name Fleming?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.